World View | What are You Drinking?

CISO Paul Raines says your company's preferred beverage can tell you a lot about how you need to approach security. Who's buying?

June 22, 2008 — One of the favourite conversation topics in Europe is making cultural distinctions. You know, the southern Europeans do it this way; northern Europeans do it that way. Do you speak a romance language, a Germanic language or a Slavic language? How many times do you kiss in your country during the greeting, one, two, three or four times? Are you from a country in the former communist Eastern Europe or from Western Europe? I think Europeans do it because it gives people something to talk about over drinks--which is the topic of this month's article.

What I find ironic is that whilst my European colleagues discuss various cultural distinctions they ignore one of the most important ones which is literally right under their noses--what a person drinks. Wine or beer? Espresso or tea? Compari and soda or malt whiskey? It makes a difference, I assure you. What you quaff says volumes about what kind of person or, more broadly, what kind of culture you belong to.

Wine drinkers, for example, tend to be very particular, knowledgeable and quite discriminating about what they drink. If you want to start up a conversation with someone from Italy or France, just ask them what is their favourite wine. It can begin a conversation that can literally last for hours. A wine drinker will tell you specifically what wines they like and don't like, what wines they prefer for certain foods, the region where the grapes are grown, the micro-climate and soil of that region (i.e. the terroir), et cetera. They will (usually) show a special pride for the wine of their country and explain to you in detail why their wine is better than the wine other countries. Of course, in such conversations it is expected that you rise to the defence of the wine of your own country. That's part of the fun of drinking wine because wine drinkers drink primarily for appreciation of the drink and the inspiration it provides for good conversation. Their conversations are refined to the point of being reserved and they tend to prefer quiet conversations in the corners of cafés. Wine drinkers don't even mind drinking alone as long as they have something interesting to read. Wine drinkers frown on people who can't handle their alcohol and rarely imbibe too much. If you don't believe me, just ask yourself if you've ever seen someone stumble out of a wine bar drunk as a sailor on shore leave. I rest my case.