While finishing up the “answers” section to the recent quiz, I accidentally bumped in to this panel (from Banquet) and was struck by how unique it was.
Now, there have been plenty of times when an overconfident oaf looked to put Astérix in his place, only to be sent skyrocketing to the heavens, but in this rare case we have a solo legionary of mediocre physical build (name of “Spongefingus” in English) who’s been worked in to a perfect wrath, eager to take on our Gaulish duo.
Well, what the hey… let’s see the backstory:
(previously, Asterix & Obelix on their tour through Gaul happened to gain possession of a ‘breakdown’ chariot, likely a playful anachronism, altho who knows?)
As usual, Obelix is dreadful at playing along, and now the vendetta is ignited.
Brut: a French word meaning “raw,” used to describe a style of wine that’s very dry and crisp, with little to no added sugar. In this case, a dry, sparkling wine.
Oh?
I don’t know much about wine-making and mostly just pulled that definition from some source or other. Generally I supposed that the grapes supply most of the sugar, no?
Yes. It is actually illegal to add sugar to wine in France and Italy. They are extremely proud and protective of their wine industry and do not want it to turn into something that churns out boring mass produced products that taste exactly the same year after year. They see value in the differences in the wine years caused by the different weather conditions and the know-how and efforts to create a good wine without resorting to cheap modern shortcuts. Winemakers aren’t even allowed to water their vineyards.
Thanks for explaining. Makes sense!
(oh, and no anti-freeze either, right?)
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=79BjxQh6Xp0
I love that episode of The Simpsons. When they even treat their donkey better than Bart, I always fall of my chair laughing!
Some people kind of dismiss season one, but to me it’s full of masterpieces.
Maybe it’s not as fully polished as later seasons, but it’s got great energy and has a fun, experimental vibe that got phased out in some ways. In terms of animation, Bart’s mouth briefly moving to the other side of his face would be one example. Another would be how far they ran with a theme, for example when Bart and Herman organise an army of kids to teach the bullies a lesson.
The grapes supply all of the sugar, otherwise it’s not wine but … something else.