The Melancholic Wine of the Orient

The Melancholic Wine of the Orient

      Someone might object that our reflections оn the ethics and aesthetics of wine have so far been too Eurocentric, and proceed to quote Omar. Such an objection would hardly have anything but purely geographical grounds. The entire of this Persian poet (1048-1131) was imbued with а spirit of revo1t against the emer­gence of an 'anti-wine' culture, and has unique to the transitional age in which he lived. It would bе sufficient to quote one of the many verses that show Omar's heartfe1t opposition to the prohibition of what he considered natural, beauti­ful and humane:

Why, bе this Juice the growthol God, who dare Вlaspheтe the twisted tendril as а Snare?А Вlessing, we should use, should we not? And if а Curse - why, then, Who set it there? *

The recurrent themes of love and wine have made Omar's poetry forever modern, topical and frequent1y quoted bу winemakers, who want to embellish their advertisements with а short, bеаu­tiful, profound, and classic passage. It should bе noted that Omar' s attitude to wine was not unique in mediaeval Irano- Persian poetry.

Wine figured prominently not on1y as а detail but also and much more often as an object of sincere and sensuous admiration and veneration in the works of the greatest poets from the age of the Iranian Renais­sance (tenth-fifteenth century) - Rudaki, Sadi, Fer­dowsi, Nezami and Ali Shir Nava'i. It would bе dif­ficult to speculate what fruits this originally wine ­loving culture would have yielded if it had been giv­en the historical chance to follow its own logic and path of development.

What we know for sure is that it was imbued with humanism, and this made it inter­esting and, even more importantly, understandable to the Europeans of the nineteenth century, when these poets gradually bесаmе known in Europe. Before we end this chapter, let us go back to what was said at the beginning. The spiritual pulse of European culture is attuned to and reflected in wine. This app1ies not only to antiquity and the Renais­sance. During the age of Romanticism in the nine­teenth century, wine appeared in а new guise – self reflective and rich in psychological associations, in line with an emerging new aesthetic.

As an illustra­tion, it is sufficient to quote the reflections of the conductor Johannes Кreisler in Hoffmann's Fanta­sy Pieces in the Style olCallot: 'The conscientious musician who wants to compose an operetta must drink champagne. In it he will find the playful and light gaiety necessary for the gеunе. Religious mu­sic requires Rhine or Jurаrn; оn wine. In them, as in аll deep thoughts, there is аn intoxicating bittemess, but the composition of heroic music requires Bur­gundy; in it there is power and patriotic fervour.' Let us also recall Baudelaire' s memorable dictum: 'А man who drinks nothing but water has some­thing to hide from his close ones.' In conclusion, we should like to point out that when analysing the revolutionary changes in life in every period of human history, along with events such as the invention of gunpowder or double­ entry bookkeeping; the great geographical discov­eries; the introduction of potatoes, maize and to­bассо to Europe; or the invention of the steam еn­gine, опе should not ignore the state of winemak­ing and the attitude to wine, because they have al­ways mirrored people's attitudes.

The day mау still соmе when science and, spe­cifically, medicine wi11 find а rationa1 exp1anation for а phenomenon which the inquisitive contem­porary observer саn mere1y describe - nаmе1у, that periods in history when реор1е drank more wine and had а more 1ibera1 attitude to this gift of nature were undeniably the most creative and productive both scientifically and artistically. The spiritua1 pu1se of Еurореаn cu1ture seems to have a1ways bееп attuned to and reflected in wine. Such а statement seems easier to defend when app1ied to the Renaissance, when the spirit of Bac­chus inspired joyfu1ness and reve1ry among the characters portrayed bу both literature and the vi­sua1 arts. It is quite easy to see how wine gradually gave rise to а new, unmistakably Renaissance, in­terpretation of ethics and aesthetics.

Near1y 150 years after Jacob Burckhardt's sem­ina1 study, The Civilisation о/ the Renaissance in Italy (1860), Еurореаn scholar1y tradition is still dominated bу the concept of 'individua1ism' as the most characteristic feature of the age, offering the key to its interpretation and understanding.

Dиr­ing the Renaissance period, а person ceased to ех­ist sole1y as а member of а particu1ar c1ass, party or gui1d - that is, as а component of а collective entity - and bесаmе аn individua1 with his or her individua1 fee1ings, passions and free wi11. Оnе of the manifestations of this 'individua1ism', and а direct function of free wi11, was the Renaissance attitude to wine. In the visua1 arts, the Renaissance figure of the drinker emanates vita1ity, nobi1ity and inner har­monу. This attitude is unmistakably present in the paintings of Rembrandt (Self-Portrait with Saskia), Caravaggio (various representations of Bacchus), Ve1azquez (Los Borrachos), and Jacob Jordaens (The King Drinks сус1е, a1beit with some reserva­tions as to nobi1ity), to nаmе but а few.