View source for A Glass of Chianti

{{trope}}
[[File:yourvampiresucks.jpg|link=Hellsing|frame|So you ''do'' [[Dracula|drink... vine!]] [[That Liar Lies|Liar!]] ]]

{{quote|''"A census taker once tried to test me. [[I'm a Humanitarian|I ate his liver]] with some fava beans, and [[Trope Namer|a nice Chianti]]."''|'''Dr. Hannibal Lecter'''|''[[The Silence of the Lambs]]''}}

Many [[Big Bad]]s, being more [[Aristocrats Are Evil|high-class]] than most heroes, like to sip some wine, usually red, while [[Slouch of Villainy|lounging on their throne]]. This makes them seem [[Wicked Cultured|refined]] and [[Evil Is Cool|worldly]], even when [[Villains Out Shopping|relaxing]]. Heroes and more petty villains go for the more boorish beer, usually because they either can't afford wine or they have [[Evil Tastes Good|no taste for the stuff]].

Note that red is seen as a lot more sinister than white wine, due to its [[Color Coded for Your Convenience|Color Coding]] and general connotations with blood. When a vampire (usually richer and more refined, not one of the [[Our Vampires Are Different|biker vamps)]] drinks red blood from a wine-glass, it invokes much the same imagery, and one can argue that villains drink red wine specifically to invoke the vampiric example.

Villainesses and neutral [[Femme Fatale|Femmes Fatale]] also have the option of sipping white wine and champagne ("girly" wines), and seductively drinking from a tall flute glass and peering through the bubbles at the hero.

Another common variant is the Snifter of Brandy, preferably poured from a snazzy, cut-glass decanter.

If these type of villains suffer a [[Villainous Breakdown]], it's likely that there will be a [[Dramatic Shattering]] of that glass of wine as a metaphor for the breakdown.

Subtrope of [[Wine Is Classy]]. Wine, especially rare and expensive wine (and the ability to identify vintages of it by sight, smell, and taste), has become a cliche commonly associated with the Grey Poupon set. This can be used to indicate someone is [[Appeal to Vanity|a snob]], or simply as a part of the background culture of the story. Further, red wine is more often an acquired taste, possibly hinting that one had the funds to develop it.

It might be worthy of note that Chianti is not actually a high class wine, and Fava beans aren't gourmet food, either. However, both are very rich in iron, as is the liver - and blood. Also, iron interacts with certain types of psychiatric medication, implying that Lecter was off his meds. The hint is rarely ever taken, though. [[Alternate Character Interpretation|Alternately]], maybe he thought a census taker didn't deserve the good stuff.

{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* Creed from the ''[[Black Cat (manga)|Black Cat]]'' manga had this once, complete with a rose inside of it, while he was [[Slouch of Villainy|lounging around in his evil castle]].
* [[Captain Harlock]]'s trademarks are scars, eyepatches, and wine, in roughly that order. While he's more of an [[Anti-Hero]], many of his actions could certainly be seen as unlawful and he's actually portrayed as the villain in ''[[Cosmo Warrior Zero]]''.
* ''[[Mazinger Z]]'' : [[Mad Scientist|Dr.]] [[Complete Monster|Hell]] and his lackeys are sometimes seen drinking glasses of wine.
* Piedmon from ''[[Digimon Adventure]]''. He even got to keep it in the dub, with none of the dub's infamous [[Frothy Mugs of Water]] lines.
* [[Subverted]] in ''[[Eureka Seven]]'', Anemone achieves the same imagery of drinking blood by eating marmalade.
* Alucard from ''[[Hellsing]]'', the trope image, is seen enjoying red wine on his throne more than once in there series. It is hinted it may be mixed with blood, or be blood entirely.
** The Major is another fine example, except with a glass of champagne.
* When Kanako of ''[[Maria Holic]]'' returns to her dorm room for the first time, she finds [[Villainous Crossdresser|Mariya]] sitting there.  {{spoiler|It's Bordeaux.}}
{{quote|'''Mariya:''' It's tomato juice.
'''Kanako:''' That's definitely a lie! }}
* Gakuto from ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]''.
* Evangeline of ''[[Negima]]'' does the "ungirly" version by often drinking red wine ([[Vain Sorceress|usually in the most refined way possible]]). She is partial to several varieties of rare alcohols though (also drunk in refined ways).
* Altena in ''[[Noir (anime)|Noir]]'' not only drinks wine but also owns a private vineyard. She also picks up the grapes herself, and is implied to at least participate in the making of the wine, as well. All and all, she's one hard-working [[Big Bad]].
** Although to some extent this is a subversion, since the vineyard isn't used to demonstrate Altena's decadence or refinement, but rather meant to emphasize her [[Dissonant Serenity|preternatural humility]] and role as a [[The High Queen|Madonna figure]]. It takes a [[Zen Survivor|special]] [[Anti-Villain|kind]] of [[Big Bad]] to willingly do hard manual labour day in and day out, after all.
* ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'''s Giovanni sometimes is seen drinking some sort of alcohol, though it's never certain what sort it is.
* Captain Napolipolita in [[Project A-ko]] is invariably seen with a glass of wine. When she can't get any, she goes into instant withdrawal and [[More Dakka|shoots up her own bridge]]. (It's a parody of ''[[Captain Harlock]]''.)
* Prince Diamond of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' goes so far as to hold his wine glass up to an image of Neo Queen Serenity, with whom he is infatuated, so it looks like she's ''sitting'' in the glass.
* The Computer Society President from ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi|The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' gets to try this out while he's villaining it up in the episode "Day of Sagittarius III". It's okay that he's underaged, it's all just part of the [[Deep-Immersion Gaming]] shtick.
** This is actually a [[Shout-Out]] to [[Big Bad]] Leader Desslok in ''[[Star Blazers]]''.
* [[The Chessmaster|Fei Wong]] of ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' spends most of his time drinking wine, looking bored, and letting loose a needlessly cryptic comment vaguely foreshadowing the next step of his plan to whoever happens to be listening.
* Dr. Muraki in ''[[Yami no Matsuei]]'' (the anime) only got one scene where he drank red wine, but he milked it for all it was worth.
** For the love of all that is good, please rephrase that.
** [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|Yeah, stroke the stem of that wine glass...]]
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'':
** Maximillian Pegasus, the [[Big Bad]] of the Duelist Kingdom arc, loved to [[Villains Out Shopping|drink wine and read comic books]]. 4Kids turned depictions of his wine into [[Frothy Mugs of Water|"fruit juice"]]; ironically, this actually works with his character because [[Adult Child|he acts childish for most of his on-screen time.]] In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light]]'', however, he was specifically said to be drinking wine spritzers, [[Acid Reflux Nightmare|blaming one of them for a nightmare.]]
*** This led to a great joke in one fanfic:{{context|Which fanfic?}} His assistant Croquet tells him that he was willing to look the other way regarding the drinking back when he was calling it wine, but calling it juice is introducing unstable behavior that requires an intervention.
** Rex Godwin of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's]]'' would drink wine on occasion, although the dub never said just what it was.
* [[Big Bad|Father]] does this in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]''. It's not wine, though, nor even blood, but ''souls''  {{spoiler|- from Greed's Philosopher's Stone}}.
* [[Big Bad|Dilandau]] from ''[[Vision of Escaflowne]]'' has a taste for red wine.
* In [[Dragon Ball]], [[Big Bad|Freeza]] is seen sipping red wine (or whatever he drinks that looks the same) in a similar fashion in early scenes and flashbacks during the Freeza Saga.
* In ''[[One Piece]]'', the character Inazuma takes this to the extreme, as he[[Gender Bender|(or she)]] carries a goblet of red wine at ''all'' times, ''even while fighting''.
* In ''[[Saint Seiya]]'', the great Pope have a glass too, but [[A Glass in the Hand|broke it in his fist]] when he start to be upset.
* [[Lupin III]] finds out about the tasting of a bottle of wine made for Napoleon, so he decides to swap it for a bottle of plonk.  {{spoiler|The guests are fooled by the cheap wine, but the real wine spoiled long ago.}}
* The head of the committee after the protagonists in ''[[Choujin Gakuen]]''. At this point in the story, the heroes haven't met her face to face and she watching the fight from a button on the minions she sent after them. But Adam manages to guess correctly that she holding one just based on her condescending tone.
* Dio Brando from ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'' often has a glass of wine while reading in part III; by then, he's pretty much just flaunting his level of sophistry.
* [[The Alcoholic|Yuuko Ichihara]] of ''[[×××HOLiC]]'' enjoys nothing more than tossing back beers, sakes and anything with liquor in it in the most booze-hound manner imaginable. That she's still creepy, imposing and pretty much ''omniscient'' at times, is a rather interesting contrast. Not to mention smoking ''an opium pipe''. It could just be tobacco in there, but still...
* In ''[[Science Ninja Team Gatchaman]]'' and it's American ''G-Force'' translation, [[Gender Bender|Berg Katse]] was often seen with a glass of wine.

== [[Comic Books]] ==
* The Vatman in the ''Bloody Mary'' comics is something of an alcoholic... even after losing the bottom half of his face.
* ''[[The Flash|Flash]]'' villain the Top is an elitist who never fit in well with the other Flash villains. Part of this comes from the fact that he can taste the difference in red wines...
* Emma Frost did this quite often when she was an [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] villain. As stated about villainesses, she preferred champagne. For [[Drink Order|some strange reason]], her tastes changed after joining the team, where her spirit of choice became whiskey out of a flask.
** Dealing with the X-Men could drive ''anyone'' to hard liquor.
** This fluctuates, sometimes it's whiskey in a flask, out of action it is still a glass of chianti. Usually she drinks whiskey in tense situations.
* [[Doctor Doom]] has been shown lounging about on thrones or in throne halls with glasses of what one can only assume is a wine variant of one or other.
* In ''[[Excalibur (Comic Book)|Captain Britain]],'' one of [[Reality Warper|Mad Jim Jaspers]]' first scenes in the 616 universe involved him transforming white wine into red wine:
{{quote|He wants to laugh, but he feels too sad because the wine is wrong. It's ''white'' wine. He doesn't ''like'' white wine. He likes ''red'' wine.}}
* Immortal caveman conqueror [[Vandal Savage]] can tell the year and region of a wine by the sound of it being poured, and refuses to drink anything newer than 1,000 year old vintage.
** which raises the question; if he doesn't drink the vast majority of wines, how does he know what they sound like when being poured?
** And he prefers to drink spoiled vinegar? As far as I know vintages over a few centuries are pretty much nonexistant, and have all turned to vinegar centuries ago.
* [[Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor| Used as a sick joke]], of course, but in one [[Spider-Man]] story, [[Venom]] pretty much paraphrases Hannibal Lecter's famous quote while anticipating eating Spider-Man's liver. (He had previously goaded the hero by saying he was trying to decide between the lungs, spleen, or pancreas; [[Ax Crazy|the guy is nuts]].)
* One of [[Daredevil]]'s foes is the crime boss Leland Owlsley, aka the Owl; having questionable sanity, Owlsley is often seen drinking expensive scotch or bourbon one minute, then eating a live mouse the next.

== Film ==
* In ''[[The Silence of the Lambs]]'', Hannibal Lecter famously announces, "A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti," before making a hideous slurping sound.
** This was actually both an [[Easter Egg]] and [[Genius Bonus]], as {{spoiler| Lecter was actually giving Clarice a subtle hint to his plans. Someone who is taking monoamine oxidase inhibitors - as Lecter was - cannot eat foods or beverages with a significant amount of tyramine, because doing so would risk potentially lethal blood pressure complications. As a result, liver (any type), fava beans, and red wine are the ''last'' things someone taking those medications should be eating. This is Lecter's subtle way of telling her [[No Medication for Me|he stopped taking his medication]], which aids in his escape later.}} 
* In ''[[The Matrix]] Reloaded'', the Merovingian sips wine while holding court in the restaurant.
* In ''[[Modesty Blaise (film)|Modesty Blaise]]'' [[The Movie]], Gabriel (played by [[Flamboyant Gay|Dirk Bogarde]]) lounges with a glass of ''blue'' wine while dispensing his evil orders.
* In ''The Island'', [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] Dr. Merrick is seen watching the Lottery in his private abode, drinking from a wine glass.
* [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] does this a number of instances.
** In ''[[From Russia with Love]]'', senses something isn't quite right with [[The Dragon|Red Grant]] when he orders red wine, specifically A Glass of Chianti... with fish.
** At the end of ''[[Diamonds Are Forever]]'', 007 defeats the [[Evil Duo|bad]] [[Camp Gay|guys]] using his knowledge of fine wines.
** Earlier in the same film, he identifies the vintage of a sherry by taste. When sarcastically told sherry doesn't have vintages, he states that he meant the wine the sherry was made from. Possibly setting up Bond's superior knowledge of wine for later.
* The [[Big Bad]] in ''[[Race for the Yankee Zephyr]]'' spends half the time with a martini glass in his hand, whether traveling downstream in a rubber dinghy or watching his mooks beat up one of the protagonists.
* In ''[[Dracula: Dead and Loving It]]'', Dracula says, "I never drink...wine. Ah, what the hell. <sip> It's good!"
* In ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'', Landa pours himself a glass of chianti from a fiasco while questioning Aldo. It's somewhat ironic that he's drinking Italian wine while interrogating a fake Italian.
* In ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' there's a wineglass in the vicinity of Jafar, but before he can drink it Jasmine throws it in his face.
* In ''[[Daybreakers]]'', this is done with actual blood by the high-level vampire Bromley by draining a human victim's blood into a wine glass.
** And don't forget [[Interview with the Vampire|Lestat]].

== Literature ==
* Funny enough, in the original novel of ''[[The Silence of the Lambs]]'' it was a "big Amarone" and not Chianti. Still a red wine from Italy, though. The change in the film was probably a case of [[Small Reference Pools]].
* The titular Count in ''[[Dracula]]'', [[I Do Not Drink... Wine|does not eat or drink]]. He does however know enough about fine wines to provide Johnathan Harker with "a bottle of excellent Old Tokay" to have with supper.
* Double Subverted in ''[[Carpe Jugulum]]'', where the human subculture of vampires are considered freaks because they file down their teeth, wear bright colors, stay up past noon, and [[I Do Not Drink... Wine|drink... ''wine'']].

== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* Lex Luthor from ''[[Smallville]]''. In fact, most of the time you can clearly see the crystal decanter in his living room.
* Adelei Niska sips on an unidentified drink in the ''[[Firefly]]'' episode "War Stories" while watching Mal being [[Cold-Blooded Torture|tortured]].
* [[The Master (trope)|The Master]] in ''[[Doctor Who]]'' has always been fond of quality drinks (and cigars, of course). He's shown sipping whisky in ''The Time Monster'', wine from fine goblets in various Ainley!Master stories and glugging wine or whisky in [[Doctor Who/Recap/S29/E12 The Sound of Drums|"The Sound of Drums"]].
* ''[[Farscape]]'' promotional images occasionally feature Scorpius holding a wine glass of an unnamed alien vintage (in the images where he's not [[Knife Nut|holding some kind of bladed instrument]], of course).
* Vesper Abbadon and Silas Benjamin in ''[[Kings]]''. Silas tests Abbadon's clarity of thought by having him identify a rare wine. "Chocolate, cassis . . . vines grown in clay."
* In one episode of ''[[Red Dwarf]]'', [[It Makes Sense in Context|the imperial descendant of Rimmer's clone]] decreed the execution and immolation of the ''Red Dwarf'' crew, and ordered their ashes brought to him on a silver plate with a glass of chilled sancerre. The Cat is horrified.
{{quote|'''Cat''': This guy's an animal. Doesn't he know it's ''red'' wine with cold ashes?}}
* In the two-part episode of ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' where Rita and Zedd married, both villains drank something that looked like green liquid with dry ice. Given the target audience, it was never outright referred to as wine.

== Music ==
* Stephen Lynch's "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjoYQKEGdrw Beelz]."
{{quote|My real name is Beelzebub, but you can call me Beelz
I love to watch Fox News and then go club some baby seals
Then I'll take a bubble bath and drink a Zinfandel
Try to wash off that baby seal smell
And then I'll make a toast to me--hey, here's to my hell...th! }}

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dark_Ruler_Ha_Des Dark Ruler Ha Des] in the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! (Tabletop Game)|Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Game]]'', although in some international versions the wine is [[Bowdlerise|replaced by a fantastical green liquid]]. Its original Japanese artwork was finally imported to the TCG territory through a Lost Art promotion in 2019. 

== [[Video Games]] ==
*  {{spoiler|Matt Engarde}} from ''[[Ace Attorney]]'', who materialized a brandy balloon from [[Hammerspace]] {{spoiler|''whilst in prison''}} for the sole purpose of swirling it evilly in front of Phoenix.
** It's actually just an unidentified brown liquid, which has led to some fans joking it's chocolate milk.
*** Given the games' tendency to have [[Frothy Mugs of Water|grape juice]] in wine bottles, it would not surprise people if it was canon.
* If you steal from Dracula in ''[[Castlevania]]: Curse of Darkness'', you will find that he drinks tomato juice. Now that's blackmail material.
* In the final boss battle in ''Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow'''s Julius Mode, Soma Cruz [[Slouch of Villainy|lounges on Dracula's throne]] while sipping a glass of wine as you enter. He dramatically tosses it to the ground before rising to fight you.
** Soma is seen in a similar position in his bad ending of ''Aria of Sorrow''.
** This is a shout-out to a similar scene in ''Symphony of the Night'' where Dracula dramatically tosses aside a wine glass while expressing his distaste for humanity before [[Throwing Down the Gauntlet]] and fighting Richter.
*** The scene is also borrowed for a boss fight in ''[[I Wanna Be the Guy]]''.  {{spoiler|The wine glass will hit the hero and kill them if they don't dodge-- but what ''[[Everything Trying to Kill You|doesn't]]'' in this game?}}
*** And again in ''Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin''. Dracula ''really'' likes doing this.
*** Dracula must have picked up the habit during ''Symphony of the Night'', because he does it ''again'' in ''Order of Ecclesia''.
*** And the first game where Dracula does it is ''Castlevania X68000'', later ported to [[PlayStation]] as ''Castlevania Chronicles''.
*** [[Magicka]] has yet another shout out to this (among its 9001 shout outs) when Vlad tosses a glass of wine away just before the boss fight starts.
* Fatman, the bizarrely hedonistic mad bomber boss in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'', carries around a glass of red wine and drinks it ''as you fight him''. Needless to say, it makes a mess of his blast suit in the end.
** Not quite: he [[Dramatic Shattering|breaks the glass]] in anger after being insulted by Raiden in the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohvQrV6eKZQ pre-fight cutscene].
** Isn't that supposed to be his blood?
*** Only if you kill him. If you knock him out, he spills his wine on himself.
*** No. He finishes the wine, and breaks the wine glass, beforehand, and his suit isn't stained during the fight. It must be blood. Unless he [[Wild Mass Guessing|had a bottle of wine in his pocket which was broken by a tranquiliser dart...]]
** But he drinks it ''through a straw''! How uncouth is '''that'''?
*** Well, considering that the blast suit covers his face up to the eye line, he kinda HAS to...
**** That's no excuse...
***** He's insane. Does it really matter how you drink your wine when you're a mad bomber on rollerskates?
****** [[Serious Business|Yes.]]
* [http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/File:Amano_Exdeath_2.jpg This] [[Yoshitaka Amano]] concept art for ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'' depicts the main villain, Exdeath, lounging with a goblet of... something. He's probably only doing it for looks since for one thing, he still has his helmet on, and for another [[When Trees Attack|he's an evil tree]].
* Jonathan Jones and Valentina from [[Super Mario RPG]] Are both seen holding wine glasses with red liquid in them.
** I find it somewhat suprising this actually got past the censors, really.
*** Johnny will comment on his drink if you inspect it after the boss fight. It's apparently 100% currant juice. [[Frothy Mugs of Water|Really.]]
* Mr X does this in the bad ending of ''[[Streets of Rage]] 3''.

== Web Comics ==
* Miho's character in the [[Megatokyo]] online game/backstory manages to play this as A Goblet Of Chianti. The line ("Ah, but there is still the wine...") and [[Manipulative Bastard|the]] [[Technically a Smile|expression]] clinch it.
* In ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' there's only one way to cap General Tarquin's [[Magnificent Bastard|most magnificently evil speech ever]]: [https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0763.html a single smooth sip of his drink.]

== Web Original ==
* [[The Nostalgia Chick]] had a glass of dark-looking eggnog held in her hand during her second part of "Dreamworks Vs. Disney". While she's not [[Anti-Hero|technically]] a villain, but she [[Kick the Dog|kicked Nella]] rather badly during that episode.

== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Megatron of ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' once convinced the Constructicons to switch sides by sharing some of his private blend of ''oil'', and was of course holding a goblet full of it in the standard fashion. The 'goblet' was a barrel twisted into the shape of fine glassware. Classy!
** Earlier, in ''[[Beast Wars]]'', Rampage said the second half of the page quote verbatim, substituting "spark" for "liver".
* Ratigan from Disney's ''[[The Great Mouse Detective]]'' drinks a glass of champagne while, indeed, lounging on his throne.
* An episode of ''[[South Park]]'' parodies this. Cartman fakes having Tourette's, and is going to be on TV, and plans to say things on live television, and get away with it. When explaining this to Kyle, Cartman is sipping what appears to be wine, Kyle takes a sip from a glass and claims "This is apple juice!"
* In ''[[The Black Cauldron]]'', Horned King [[A Glass in the Hand|broke his glass]] just like in Saint Seiya.
* Discord from ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]'' does this with a glass of chocolate milk while sitting on his throne, now the [[Evil Overlord]] of Equestria. While not wine, his mannerisms give it the same effect. Strangely, he drinks the ''glass'' instead of the milk, however—then again, what fun is there in making sense?
* In ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' episode ''Monty Can't Buy Me Love'' , Kent Brockman reads: "This new breed of fun-loving billionaire is a welcome change from the classic joyless miser, brooding in his cavernous mansion, grasping a glass of brandy with his thin, clawlike fingers and a superior smirk on his greedy, soulless face" . Cut to Montgomery Burns sitting in his mansion, in that exact pose, glass in hand and uttering a reverberating "bah"
* Several scenes in the 2019 ''[[Harley Quinn]]'' cartoon show Poison Ivy relaxing with a glass of red wine and a book; usually for Harley and her "crew" to return from a heist in the loudest and most annoying means possible.

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[[Category:Evil Tropes]]
[[Category:This Is Your Index On Drugs]]
[[Category:Hard-Drinking Tropes]]
[[Category:Food Tropes]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glass of Chianti, A}}