Wine Flight

Martha, here’s an interesting email that we got from Steve in Southern California.

He says,

At a restaurant last night, my friend and I ordered a flight of wine that was featured.

So our question is, why is it called a flight?

Good question.

You know, Steve, this is a good question.

It’s probably related to a variety of other uses of flight that mean a bunch of similar things, such as a flight of stairs or a flight of birds.

That’s a flock of birds, which is a loft.

Or even a flight of aircraft.

The RAF uses that term.

And, Martha, there is a collective noun for a group of angels, which is also a flight.

Oh, sure.

Flights of angels.

Flights of angels.

Yeah.

So more than likely it comes from that.

It’s just a series of things which are similar.

They’re like of a kind, but each unique, each different.

So, for example, you can also have flights of beer, vodka, sake, even olive oil, salmon, oysters, pretty much anything.

Anything that comes in a variety of types but is still all of one kind, you can have a flight of.

So like a tasting of balsamic vinegar and that kind of thing?

That’s right.

Exactly.

Or a tasting of different kinds of beers.

The wine one, of course, is more well-known.

I hadn’t thought about the flight of stairs connection.

So it’s just a collection of…

A series, actually.

These are things that are presented or happen or, in this case, consumed in order.

I see.

If you take a flight, I believe you’re supposed to consume them in the order in which they’re presented.

That would make sense to me.

Yeah, like at a wine tasting.

Well, you’re the California lady.

Do you ever go out to the wineries and do the booze Saturdays or whatever they call them?

Booze Saturdays.

Right.

You can chunk on somebody else’s dime.

You pretend to be a connoisseur, but instead you’re just sipping the Merlot.

Right, and you do it in order.

In order.

That’s right.

White to red.

Yeah.

Well, thanks for your email, Steve.

I hope that helped.

If you just want to send us an email with a question, we’ll take a look at it.

The email address is words@waywordradio.org.

You can, of course, also call us at 1-877-WAYWORD.

That’s 1-877-929-9673.