CARNAL NATION

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has refused to allow the import of a particular label of French wine from Bordeaux because of the actual label on the bottles. Château Haut Gay (AOC Bordeaux Supérieur) has a bright orange label featuring two verses of the poem "L'Ame du Vin" ("The Soul of Wine") by the celebrated 19th-century poet Charles Baudelaire. A few weeks ago, a New York importer applied for a permit to import the wine, but the permit was denied because ATF agents deemed the label "an incentive to debauchery." The decision is final and cannot be appealed.

The poem is part of the collection of Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil), which is considered Baudelaire's masterpiece. It is one of several poems celebrating the virtues of wine. The verses on the label read as follows (the translation is in parentheses; it does not appear on the label):

Un soir, l’âme du vin chantait dans les bouteilles (One night, the soul of wine was singing in the flask:)

Homme, vers toi je pousse, ô cher déshérité ("O man, dear disinherited! to you I sing)

Sous ma prison de verre et mes cires vermeilles (This song full of light and of brotherhood)

Un chant plein de lumière et de fraternité. (From my prison of glass with its scarlet wax seals.)

Puis, en toi je tomberai, végétale ambroisie (Vegetal ambrosia, precious grain scattered)

Grain précieux jété par l’éternel Semeur (By the eternal Sower, I shall descend in you)

Pour que de notre amour naisse la poesie (So that from our love there will be born poetry, )

Qui jaillira vers Dieu comme une rare fleur. (Which will spring up toward God like a rare flower!")*

"Through these magnificent lines, I hoped to differentiate myself from other producers, so that my wine—which already has an orange label—would attract consumers' attention. Obviously, it's a wasted effort where the American market is concerned," said Guillaume de Tastes, the "debauched" vintner.

The decision by the ATF does not include any explanation of what they found so offensive in the poem. Though Baudelaire was considered quite decadent in his day and even faced government-sanctioned censorship in 1857, these lines are particularly restrained compared to some of his more scandalous poems about sex and death. He infamously broached such topics as lesbianism and profane love; however, we highly doubt that the ATF agents are that familiar with the history of French poetry. Then again, there is the word "gay" in the name of the wine. Perhaps combined with Baudelaire's incitement to create poetry, the U.S. government feared that drinking this 2007 Bordeaux would spawn a drunken orgy of sonnet writing. De Tastes adds,"When I think about it, this US decision doesn't surprise me, the country is like that." Yes, it is, unfortunately, often like that. It's enough to make you want to drink (but not write poems).

 [via bordeauxwinenews]

*Translation by William Aggeler, The Flowers of Evil (Fresno, CA: Academy Library Guild, 1954)