Passadoc Gazette – No 161

Wine...

It all starts with Noah... After 40 days of diluvian rain and more than a year of wandering over the waves, he finally treads a land wet and soft * as Hugo says*, and plant a vine, sign of peace and harmony in a connection with the earth, based on work, humility and simple joys**.

According to the Bible, the vine is the first plant planted by man; a plant that will grow and grow on all the lands of the planet and therefore in different climates. Over the centuries, the work of men – the selection of soils, the size of vines, the method of vinification, etc. – will create wines of different qualities.

In Pompeii, on the wall of a tavern we read:
For one, you can drink wine,
For two, you can drink the best
For four you can drink falernum.
... by the name of one of the great crus of that time.
[« For one, » ace, i.e. 1/4 of sesterce).

If wine is glorified by many writers and poets, it is honored by Joseph Pagnol, Marcel's father! For the teacher, who was a student of the École Normale in Aix-en-Provence, The view of a glass of wine gives him chills of disgust!***

This is not the case with Colette; Loveful wine, she knows the biggest and most discreet wines. Very young she discovers Jurançon: This is where I made, a teenager, the meeting of a fiery, imperious, treacherous prince like all the great deceivers: the Jurançon. It also entrusts: I've had the finest of the paternal cellar, bucket bucket, delicately.

Baudelaire, who drank more than reason, gave this advice: Get drunk without truce! But what? Wine, poetry, or virtue as you please, but get drunk! Listen: