French Literature Reviews - 2026
Wine in All Its States
Other Literary Studies
Wine in All Its States
Second revised and expanded edition
Publication date: September 4, 2006
Format 16 x 24 cm, 327 pages, 21 illustrations, CEPDIVIN Publisher, 25 € - ISBN 2-9522695-1-3
Subscription price: 20 €
Offer valid until August 31, 2006
In May 2001, CEPDIVIN organized a symposium entitled "Wine in All Its States" at the Lycée Viticole in Libourne-Montagne (33). Over three days, academics, writers (including Florence Delay of the Académie Française; novelist Jean Echenoz, winner of the 1999 Prix Goncourt; novelist Jean-Marie Laclavetine, winner of the 1999 Prix Goncourt des Lycéens), artists (Alain Laborde), and professionals (Jean-Claude Berrouet, François Des Ligneris, Kess Van Leeuwen, etc.) debated the cultural imagery surrounding wine (To find out more: http://www.cepdivin.org/VinOeuvres/vinoeuvres.html)
"And so, thanks to wine, we were able to travel from one end of the Mediterranean to the other, cross the ocean, move from literature to painting, from architecture to medicine. As is well known, the grapevine grows today almost everywhere in the world, from the Middle East to California, from Europe to Australia. From one continent to the next, the wine derived from it enables humankind to live 'in every respect, more actively and with greater zest.' And whom have we met along the way throughout these journeys? That reality, which to me is primary: the universality of the human being." (Gabriel Saad, *Memory, the Vine, and Wine*).
The book Wine in All Its States, published in September 2004, brings together the core proceedings of this symposium along with several previously unpublished texts.
In order to continue meeting a demand that extends far beyond France's borders, we are planning to release a second edition, revised, corrected, and expanded with exceptionally high-quality contributions:
- Amancio Tenaguillo y Cortázar: The Presence of Wine. (Foreword considerably revised and enriched).
- Jean-Claude Pirotte: In Cabardès (unpublished)
- Henri Larski: When Certain American Films Introduce Us to Wine: French Kiss, A Walk in the Clouds (Les Vendanges de Feu), Sideways (unpublished)
- Eric Pothier: Wine Crafting and Sensory Expertise (article considerably revised and enriched)
- Amancio Tenaguillo y Cortázar & Bernard Lafargue: The Aesthetics of Wine and the Judgment of Taste (unpublished)
- General Bibliography
We invite you to support this publication by participating in the subscription campaign open until August 31, 2006.
FOREWORD
Amancio Tenaguillo y Cortázar: The Presence of Wine
PART ONE
Gabriel Saad (University of Paris III – Cepdivin): The Vine, Wine, and Memory
Jean-Claude Pirotte (Writer): In Cabardès
Jean-Marie Laclavetine (Writer): Letter from Vouvray
Salah Stétié (Writer): Meaning and Nonsense of the Wine of Islam
PART TWO
Christian Coulon (Sciences Po Bordeaux - Cepdivin): The Intoxication of the Sufis: The Ambiguities of Wine in Arab-Muslim Civilization
Christine Escarmant (University of Montpellier - Cepdivin): Becoming a Divine Diviner: Dionysus and Rabelaisian Wine
Gérard Lahouati (University of Pau): Enlightenments of Wine
Michel Prat (University of Bordeaux III): An Englishman's Wine: Lawrence Durrell
Amancio Tenaguillo y Cortázar (University of Bordeaux III - Cepdivin): Dionysus in Action: Symbolic Realism and Tragic Fiction in *Harvest* (Vendange) by Miguel Torga
PART THREE
Bernard Lafargue (University of Bordeaux III - Cepdivin): A Few Bribes of Wine in Painting (from Ulysses to Alain Laborde)
Dominique Pauvert (EHESS Toulouse - Cepdivin): Wine in the Work of Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Sophie Guermès (University of Strasbourg II): The Union of Pleasures: Singing of Wine in 18th-Century French Opera
Marie Delbos-Janet (Aix-Marseille University - Cepdivin): The Permanence of Dionysus from Euripides' *The Bacchae* to 20th-Century Polish Opera
Hans Hartje (University of Pau - Cepdivin): New Architectures of Wine
Henri Larski (Professor of Literature - Nancy): When Certain American Films Introduce Us to Wine: French Kiss, A Walk in the Clouds, Sideways
PART FOUR
Françoise Argod-Dutard (University of Bordeaux III - Cepdivin): Vine and Wine in Columella's *De Re Rustica* (1st Century AD)
Jean-Michel Picard (University College Dublin): *Et in Hibernia*: Wine in Early Medieval Ireland
Claude-Gilbert Dubois (University Bordeaux III – Cepdivin): Vine and Wine in Olivier de Serres's *Théâtre d'Agriculture*
Caroline Rivière (University of Bordeaux III): Meaning and Representations of Wine in the 16th Century
PART FIVE
Eric Pothier (University Bordeaux III - Cepdivin): Wine Crafting and Sensory Expertise
Martine Coutier (CNRS-Besançon - Cepdivin): The Wine of Lexicographers (Toward a Dictionary of the Language of Wine)
Amancio Tenaguillo y Cortázar & Bernard Lafargue: The Aesthetics of Wine and the Judgment of Taste, followed by an interview with Maurice Maurin: "Criteria of the Nose" and with Brigitte Lurton-Belondrade: "Images to Drink In"
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
THE AUTHORS
A subscription form can be downloaded at this address: http://www.cepdivin.org/VinOeuvres/Actes.html
The study of wine within the humanities often transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries, positioning the subject at the intersection of history, sociology, and aesthetics. By examining how viticulture and oenology have been represented in literature, painting, and architecture, scholars seek to understand the symbolic significance of the vine across diverse civilizations. This volume, Wine in All Its States, assembles contributions from academics and writers who analyze the cultural resonance of wine, ranging from its presence in classical texts and early medieval society to its evolving role in modern cinema and contemporary sensory expertise.
The text addresses the multifaceted nature of wine through various lenses, including the philosophical implications of taste, the linguistic challenges of describing oenological experiences, and the recurring motifs of Dionysian imagery in art and opera. By incorporating perspectives from both the Arab-Muslim world and Western traditions, the work highlights the universality of human responses to the vine. Readers interested in the intersection of cultural history and the arts may find these proceedings relevant.