Grape Juice A Perfect Complement to Italian Cuisine

One of my hopes for 2009 is that some first-rate Italian restaurant in the Austin area of Texas will actually offer purple grape juice as an alcohol-free beverage option on its menu.

As a complete abstainer from alcohol myself, I would appreciate being able to order a non-alcoholic counterpart to Italian red wine when I dine in an Italian restaurant.

In this way, I can delight in the revelry and conviviality that the Roman God Bacchus inspired, without myself experiencing the drunken stupor to which Bacchus subjected all too many of the Roman mortals he ruled over.

Concord grape juice, for instance, contains flavanoids that enhance one's cardiovascular health. And drinking purple grape juice inside an Italian restaurant will not undermine my ability to drive my motor vehicle safely after I leave that restaurant. Nor will I ever get a hangover from drinking grape juice as a paying guest inside an Italian restaurant in Austin.