2023-12-09 17:00:13
At the entrance to Château Chasse-Spleen, in Moulis-en-Médoc (Gironde), in 2019, the gigantic boots of the artist Lilian Bourgeat, evoking the grape harvest. DUFFOUR/ANDIA.FR
Céline Villars-Foubet has no doubt that the name of her property is the most beautiful in the world. We understand it, as Chasse-Spleen is so romantic. Atypical. Almost all Bordeaux wines bear the name of a château or a terroir, its name helps to escape depression. Its reputation is such that it eclipses its moulis appellation, and the village where it is cultivated, Moulis-en-Médoc (Gironde), forty-five minutes from Bordeaux. The name has allure, but it’s also worth treasure.
Spleen becomes trendy with Baudelaire, who evokes it in The evil flowers in 1857. This masterpiece establishes a romantic common sense: a form of melancholy which torments the soul. To the point that in 1863, still in the Baudelairian whirlwind, Rosa Ferrière renamed her Médoc castle “Chasse-Spleen”. The old name was too similar to that of other areas and it intends to appeal to the English market. The symbolist painter Odilon Redon, who lived in the neighboring property when he was not in Paris, and who will illustrate The evil flowers, would have suggested the idea to him. Rosa is marketing ahead of her time.
In France, magic happens. In England, it is more black magic, because the word « spleen » means “spleen”, an organ that Hippocrates links to unhappiness – this cliché will die hard. Not great for selling wine. “Not very pretty”, smiles Céline Villars-Foubet. Having inherited the family estate in 2000, the latter has since strived, with her husband, Jean-Pierre Foubet, to make “most word disgusting of the English language the most beautiful of the French language.
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First, in its dialogue with Anglo-Saxon clients, the castle avoids chasing spleen, preferring « to chase out the blues ». Chase away the blues. A little expected but effective. And then the couple wrote down their credo: three tight sheets dissecting the word “spleen” since Greek Antiquity. It is about Lord Byron, champion of dark ideas, but who never mentions the word “spleen” in his work, and especially the French romantics, for whom the pain of living invites a start and can give a rage for living.
A collection of contemporary art
The couple is also plowing the furrow of poetry. On the label of each vintage, since 2000, the verse of a writer from yesteryear or a living author has been engraved (an order has been placed). Baudelaire logically opened the ball: “I have more memories than if I were a thousand years old. » Mallarmé has staying power: “The flesh is sad, alas! and I read all the books. » Verlaine, Lamartine, Hugo, Proust… But also Jean Echenoz in 2006 follow: “Goodbye humid barracks, goodbye brutal climate. » Jean-Philippe Toussaint in 2010: “It was the opportunity, the opportune moment, the favor or the season. » Maylis from Kerangal in 2018: “Black sun, golden sun. And approach yourself as if you were a stranger. » Emmanuel Carrère in 2020: “Sun from the sun, rain from the rain, hidden castle. Waiting is profitable. » Michel Houellebecq in 2022: “There exists in the middle of time the possibility of an island. »
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