Charles Baudelaire: a dandy wine lover?

A look into Baudelaire’s life, poetry and his special relationship with wine. A fascination that swung between hedonistic pleasure and a way to transcend human boundaries. Celebrated by a tasting note

You have to be always drunk. That’s all there is to it—it’s the only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually drunk.

But on what? Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be drunk.

And if sometimes, on the steps of a palace or the green grass of a ditch, in the mournful solitude of your room, you wake again, drunkenness already diminishing or gone, ask the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock, everything that is flying, everything that is groaning, everything that is rolling, everything that is singing, everything that is speaking…ask what time it is and wind, wave, star, bird, clock will answer you:
“It is time to be drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of time, be drunk, be continually drunk! On wine, on poetry or on virtue as you wish.”

“Be drunk” * by Charles Baudelaire – translated by Louis Simpson

[ * DISCLAIMER: This is not an invitation to get intoxicated. Wine and other Stories advocates the virtue of moderation. I encourage the reader to take the above as a metaphorical invitation 😉 ]

This blog Stories section opens – slightly predictably – with Charles Baudelaire.

The French poet was famous for his proclivity towards wine (along with drugs, sex and other human excesses). Baudelaire’s archetypal image as a “decadent dandy” has survived to this day and is probably responsible for concealing the complexity of his message.

Wine was a relevant topic in Baudelaire’s literary production. The composition “Be drunk”, above, is an example. Baudelaire’s masterpiece Fleurs du mal (“Flowers of Evil”) included a section called Le Vin (“Wine”), containing five compelling poems – one of which is presented at the end of this article. Baudelaire also discussed the subject in an essay (Les Paradis Artificiels – “Artificial Paradises”), where he meticulously went through the effects of wine and drugs.

Did Baudelaire consider wine as a way to escape reality and indulge in vices? The answer is likely to be yes, but I believe his praise for wine had a deeper meaning.

Life

It’s difficult to understand Charles Baudelaire’s artistic production without delving into his biography. Born in Paris in 1821, Charles was an only child. During Charles’ childhood, his father died and his mother remarried the following year.

Charles never got along with his stepfather. He saw him as the man that took away his mother to whom he was deeply attached. Charles’ stepfather, for his part, disregarded his stepson’s artistic tendencies and considered him a lascivious, pampered, spoiled boy.

Erratic as a student, Charles showed sparks of genius, although these sometimes drifted away due to lethargy or inconstancy. In spite of his family’s wishes, Charles was determined to become a poet.

Charles enjoyed spending his inheritance on expensive clothes, women and a debauched lifestyle. Charles’ family attempted to curb his wastrel inclinations by getting the court to appoint a legal adviser to manage his fortune. No longer having full access to his inheritance, Charles was granted a periodic “allowance”. The relationship with his family soured. Financial difficulties, alienation, and complex emotions pervaded Charles’s existence. This led to Charles building a reputation of poète maudit (“cursed poet”). A dark dandy that loved to shock audiences with his unconventional and troubled behaviour.

In the 1840s and 1850s, Charles Baudelaire cultivated extensive connections with contemporary artists. In that same period, Charles took part in the Revolutions of 1848, attempted suicide and was prosecuted for offending religion and public morality with his  book Les Fleurs du mal. The public outcry resulted in Les Fleurs du Mal being withdrawn from sale (though it was later reintroduced with some amendments). Overall, the poet struggled with poor health, debts, and intermittent literary production.

In 1864, Baudelaire was forced to leave Paris to escape creditors. His lifestyle became even more debauched – he routinely smoked opium and drank in excess. Within two years he suffered a stroke. The most vibrant poet of the nineteenth century spent his last year semi-paralyzed and helpless, before passing away in August 1867.

Writing style

Baudelaire’s literary production flourished on the intersection of several different genres.

He was a precursor of the Symbolist movement that developed a few decades later. The use of sounds and perfumes to create vibrant atmospheres, his pursuit of an “evocative magic” of images and correspondences – alternating between irony and lyricism – moved the writer towards a poetry of symbols and suggestions.

Charles Baudelaire was clearly influenced by Romantic subjects. For example, solitude, the ideal of beauty as the centre of poetic expression and the role of the artist as a gifted creator. But at the same time, the French poet moved away from traditional Romanticism. His solitude did not arise in a state of nature, but in the city. Introspection became almost a guilty pleasure. Nature did not hold its supremacy anymore; instead this was replaced by fascination for the city and its inhabitants.

Above all, Baudelaire explored modernist themes. The psychological and moral complexity of living in a city, of being part of a crowd. The fleeting ephemeral life in an urban metropolis. Baudelaire felt it was his responsibility as a writer to grasp that experience, but also explore his interest in vices and refined sensual pleasures.

Most importantly, a modern anxiety and sense of displacement surged from Baudelaire’s verses: a tormented, divided self aiming for something unavailable in the physical world. Baudelaire’s relationship with the material realm was often imbued with ambiguity – his desire to stretch for another world evident. Baudelaire was probably one of the first fully-fledged modern intellectuals in Europe.

Baudelaire and wine

Perhaps the modernist tension is the key to explain Baudelaire’s adoration of wine. For the French poet, human struggles start with the flesh but ultimately takes place on a metaphysical level. Likewise, wine originates from suffering and sweat but it offers spiritual pleasure. It enraptures the drinker’s senses, elevating their personality and allowing a full expression of their potential. In the endeavour of seeking something to function as a bridge between the material and spiritual level, what can accompany humanity better than the soul of wine?

One night, from bottles, sang the soul of wine:
“O misfit man, I send you for your good
Out of the glass and wax where I’m confined,
A melody of light and brotherhood!

I know you must, out on the blazing hill,
Suffer and sweat beneath the piercing rays
To grow my life in me, my soul and will;
I’m grateful to you, and I will not play

You false, since I feel joy when I can fall
Into the throat of some old working man,
And his warm belly suits me overall
As resting place more than cold cellars can.

And do you hear the songs that hope believes,
The Sunday music, throbbing from my breast?
Elbows on table, rolling up your sleeves
You praise me, and I’ll put your cares to rest;

I’ll fire the eyes of your enraptured wife;
I’ll grant a force and color to your son,
And will for this frail athlete of life
Be oil that makes the straining muscles run.

My nectar falls in your fertility,
A precious seed whose Sower is divine,
So from our love is born rare poetry,
Thrusting towards God the blossom on its vine!”

“The Soul of wine” by Charles Baudelaire

I will end this article with a tasting note of a French wine – my humble way to honour Charles Baudelaire. I’ve chosen a red Burgundy which with its great complexity, seductive bouquet and inebriant flavours would have certainly pleased the expensive and refined taste of the poète maudit.

Domaine Drouhin-Laroze - Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru, 2010

Country: France
Region/appellation: Burgundy (Cote de Nuits) - Clos de Vougeot
Wine style: Dry red  - Savory and Classic
Grape(s): Pinot noir
Average price:  £100
Domaine Drouhin-Laroze was founded in 1850 by by Jean-Baptiste Laroze. Over the following decades, the vignerons of the Drouhin’s family proved wise enough to secure some of the best vineyard plots in the Cote de Nuits. To present, Domaine Drouhin-Laroze owns a total of six different Grand Crus, a record few families in Burgundy have surpassed. 
Clos de Vougeot is one of these Grand Crus. It is actually one of the most famous Grand Crus in Burgundy. And the largest, with its 50 hectares of extension. Clos de Vougeot is divided into 100 different parcels owned by some 80 different producers. A clear sign of the notorious fragmentation of the Burgundian vineyards.

Tasting notes
(tasted on:  10-Feb-2018)
To the eye, a rich ruby hue with the characteristic pale intensity of French pinot noir. To the nose, this wine presents a huge concentration from the beginning. It’s intensely perfumed, heady and sensual. The red and black fruit is very rich and ripe (but somehow not overripe): raspberry compote, fleshy cherry, red and black plums. A touch of dried red berries coming through as well. Intensely spiced, the wine combines a double nature: earth and sweet suggestions. Notes of autumn leaves, old bark, juniper meet nuances of thyme, sage, clove, nutmeg, leather. The flower component is splendid: violet, rose, lilac. A truly sensual beauty, with immense richness and complexity.

To the palate this wine is medium to full in body, with a dense and rich red and black fruitiness that coats your mouth. Almost like chewing juicy cherry pulp. Tons of different spices follow one another: earth, juniper, a soft liquorice nuance, anise, old bark, sage, thyme, but also a delicate meatiness with furry accents. The acidity is just perfect: high, linear, crystalline – magnificently cutting the intense fruitiness. Tannins are medium/medium+ in level, but very silky and fine-grained. A perfect Burgundy mouthfeel! Really intense and multi-layered, with a super-long finish, its sensual touch permeating for ages. A superb red Burgundy!

Wine and other Stories rating:  9.6/10