A Scandal on the Set of Scandal According to a New York Times Wine Critic

Kerry Washington

There’s a Scandal brewing according to one New York Times wine critic (and I thought I was the only one who noticed). Olivia Pope, fixer for the President, played by the gorgeous and charming Kerry Washington is, gulp, drinking her red wine the WRONG way. She spends her days kicking fictional behinds and looking perfect as she does it, but one New York wine critic is simply appalled that writers of the hit show allow Washington’s character, a fictional wine connoisseur, to hold her glass incorrectly.

Washington holds her glass by the bulb, and any good wine lover knows that the glass is to be held by the stem. Eric Asimov, however, feels that if her character is being portrayed as someone who comes off knowing so much about wine and all its boozy-deliciousness, she should at least hold the glass the correct way. Seems like a minor detail, but it’s one that apparently bothers real life wine lovers. The NY Times wine critic put his thoughts on paper and he is passionate about his feelings in saying that Pope, “treats even the finest wine as if it were a can of beer.”

“She habitually grabs goblets by the bulb rather than the stem, as a wine lover would. She never swirls and sniffs, the ritual that non-wine drinkers alternately find amusing, affected, or annoying. She guzzles rather than sips,” he says of her terrible wine drinking habit. Now, I’m not connoisseur (but I do love visiting Napa) but I do drink my fair share of red wine and even I know that the glass is to be held by the stem and half the enjoyment is in the sipping, so it’s curious that Hollywood doesn’t notice this and fix the error in the character’s habits. However, Asimov goes onto say that he cannot be the only person who notices this gross misstep and that producers and writers must have Pope drink her wine this way for a reason. And now we can rest easy.

Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images

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