Personal history by John Seabrook. This short piece is worth a read, I suspect, by most here:
Thank you
+1
I didn’t expect the article to go where it did. Good for him for seeking help and good luck on his journey.
Quite a sad tale.
I’m sure plenty of us who have kids fervently hope they can grow and mature into “aficionados” like us.
Well, at least the more mature me when I became a father and “head of the household”…
It’s sad, yet honest, and vulnerable…I think that’s the value in what he’s sharing. I’m glad I read it.
Well written and poignant.
Good read. It highlights an often overlooked issue in that people rarely talk about the effects of alcohol with their children. It is an important discussion to have much like gun safety. If you have a good frame of reference from the beginning, it helps set up expectations and perhaps could help manage risk. I can’t imagine whether this would have made any difference for the author but it is something I personally believe is important to discuss at some point.
Agreed, good read. I’m glad he is sharing his experience to potentially bring awareness to others.
I really enjoyed that read. It kinda scares me a bit. I never want to be in a situation where I have to stop drinking, so I profess to drink in moderation. I love to drink. Does this make me an alcoholic? Logic would say yes, but my brain tells me no. While I drink to excess occasionally, I regularly go several days without a drink. I don’t need it, but I love it. It’s a passion. It never affects my life negatively (other than my wallet, of course). Thanks for posting.
I enjoyed that as well. Food (or wine) for thought. Thanks for passing that along. Def a good read for this group, on many levels.
Good read, and with an unexpected slant at the end. Thought provoking on many levels.
Thanks for sharing.
Quite sobering.
Mike,
Thanks for the link. I’ve shared it elsewhere.
Cheers,
Warren
The actual cellar described sounds super cool. Wish I could do that in my house.
The writer clearly suffered from alcoholism. I’m curious about WB’ers’ opinions; did the father, based on what’s described in the article?
I got the impression that he was not an alcoholic.
I would say that a good indicator of alcoholism is the inability to not drink when you no longer enjoy it. To me, the father quit drinking wine because he couldnt taste it anymore. That would be a boon to many alcoholics because then it would be much easier to suck down the hard stuff. I’d say the father probably didn’t have a problem. He also lived into his 90’s.
What the heck is wrong with $20 Oregon Pinot anyway? 
I think the writer insinuates that his father is not an alcoholic, that the father is too much of a control freak to allow that to happen. There were a couple red flags though I thought: “My favorite, the Bullshot (it sounded like “bullshit”)—Worcestershire sauce, beef broth, and vodka—was for the morning after, if someone had a hangover.” A household where a drink to cure a hangover is a habit is an alcoholic household. And then the “Lilliputian miniatures of the big bottles in the bar that were for horse-drawn picnics.” Sounds weird to be bringing spirits on a picnic though I suppose that could have been the era.
The major impression I get of the father is that he is an egotistical, overbearing control freak. ( “That was one of the few stories he told in which he was ever at a disadvantage. It wasn’t heard often.” “The idea that anyone could be more celebrated than he was apparently did not compute.”) The author drinks to escape that control.
It was a thought provoking piece.
Thanks for posting it.