Une poétique alchimique et cosmique : vigne, vin, alcool chez Gaston Bachelard

As many other alcohols and drogues, wine distils a cultural imaginary of the vegetable substance, whose opposite polarities seem to be the sign of an archetype. Sprout from the natural and symbolic properties of the vineyard, wine is the fruit of an experienced fermentation process that puts together transformation of substances and the wine-grower’s expertise. From production to consumption, wine is the fruit of a subtle dialectic of contraries such as water and wine, Earth and sky, gold and blood, hot and cool, universal and singular. All this dialectic has been largely developed in reverie by the eminent Gaston Bachelard.We could even expand this polarity to social rites in which coexists the opposition between the Dionysus cult/ holy Christianism and the Noachite degrading inebriation.If wine is inseparable from the image of Dionysus/Bacchus, this God of the inebriation is alike to Janus, as God of the duality.