The philosopher Agapito Maestre participated in the round table “wine and art”, accompanied by the player Gonzalo Garcia and the journalists Cesar A. de los Ríos and Carmen Martínez

12.05.2005 | 

The film director José Luis Carci, Oscar winner for his film "Volver a empezar", praised the healthy habit of drinking wine for lunch and dinner, something he does since the doctor Gregorio Marañon advised his mother to do so in order to take care of her heart. Garci participated in the round table "Wine and art" at the National Wine Fair, FENAVIN, together with the journalists César Alonso de los Ríos, columnist in ABC, Carmen Martínez Castro, deputy manager of "Herrera en la Onda" in Onda Cero, the professional player Gonzalo García Pelayo, and the philosopher Agapito Maestre.

Agapito Maestre started his speech praising FENAVIN "organizing a National Wine Fair such as this is art in itself taking into account we are living in the country ranking first in whiskey consumption in the world". For Maestre, "wine is crowning and celebration of a party" and he added "without wine, there would be no culture".

Gonzalo García talked about perversion due to misuse of wine which can lead to alcoholism, and he pointed out "if to drive we need a license with a point system, we should have a similar license when drinking in order not to exceed ourselves". The player gave examples of the relation of wine with music, like the opera "Carmina Burana", a celebration with abundant wine, and he pointed out that "there is more literature about the excess of wine consumption than the actual every day realities".

The film director recalled his private tribute to cinema in his film "Canción de cuna", and he stressed "the taste of wine and cheese is such that you can never forget it". José Luis Garci recalled sensuality around wine: "who can forget the scene in Doctor Zhivago, when, at dinner, a drop of wine stays on Julie Christie's lips. Many of us dream of removing it".

Carmen Martínez made it clear that habits have improved as "one does not waste a good wine on bad company or bad manners". As for César Alonso de los Ríos he felt melancholic when talking about wine, as he remembered "the wines made of the rooted vine from Priorato, in the sixties; the wine was bad but it tasted good and it was aphrodisiac, a real harvest ritual, treading the grapes, witness of our happiness as young kids, with the family, mixed with soda".

He was very sensible when saying, "wine is the enemy of creation, Fidias would never have built the Parthenon with wine, nor Rilke would have written a single verse".

Agapito Maestre chose verses from Baudelaire to bring poetry to the event, he remembered the poet in "Les Fleurs du Mal" where he wrote "wine could make us resemble the Gods"

He added " as Kant and Goethe knew well, the word culture is related to the word cultivation, growth of grape and the act of drinking wine, so maybe no government will legislate in a restrictive way about wine".

The philosopher stated the argument of the round table was wine linked to art. "the conclusions should be joined to all forms of protest, pressures, arguments used by the agricultural and industrial sector, the vine growers sector, wine growers sector, and any sector related to wine in one way or another, as a support to avoid being included in regulations which could restrict wine consumption.