The composer of this classic blues song is unknown: “Trad” is the best guess.
There have been many version of this tale of heartbreak and vengeance. I have chosen Bessie Smith’s magnificent recording.
The song is not really about wine in any great sense but it does use it as a simile for the narrator’s love-struck angst:
“Love, oh love, oh careless love,
You fly to my head like wine,
You’ve ruined the life of many a poor girl,
and you nearly wrecked this life of mine”