1. The wine should fall on to a full stomach and rise again as discourse. This idea originates in the symposium of the ancient Greeks, to whom we owe the proverb oinos kai aletheia -- wine and truth -- which became in vino veritas when the Romans took over. Claret still has this aura for me, of a wine to be not swilled but meditated over.
   (authored by Roger Scruton)
2. In vino veritas: Get someone drunk enough and they are sure to spill the beans

How do you understand the phrase in vino veritas? Is it a praise of wine, or a derogation of wine?

And please make this from your heads, not from your dictionaries.

If I saw the phrase in print I'd almost always assume the meaning was the second, as that is the meaning that most people assign to it.

See also Jonathon Alsop on the subject.

This is one of those moments when I think to my self what the hell are they talking about? I've never heard it, but would like to know more! lol

You know - I used to think it odd that I knew ANYONE that even KNEW Latin . . .

I've always taken it to mean that when you're drunk you're prone to blurting out the truth regardless of the consequences. Like telling your boss what you really think at the Christmas Party.

I always felt that it was neutral about wine, but pessimistic about humans.

In wine is truth - and that's it. When you're Brahms you tell the truth since your learnt inhibitions that try to tell you not to tell the boss his fortune have been supressed by the alcohol.

Good one, RE. I'm laughing!

I think jheem's got it right - and that's the truth! Or, as Caesar might have said when seducing Cleo, vino, vidi, vinci.