When The Eagles were interviewed they said “it is about the jaded, blasé, hedonistic lifestyle that characterizes California” but Hotel California’s enigmatic lyrics have inspired endless debates on what they really mean.

One interpretation is that whole song is a metaphor for a drug trip and The Hotel California (THC) spells out the principal component in marijuana. The fact that the Captain says the spirit has been absent since 1969 may reference the 1969 Woodstock festival and a spirit of free drug taking that has been lost since.

Don Henley has stated though, that it was simply about the detrimental effects of the American Dream, about seeing money as a cure to troubles. The whole setting for the song could also be related to Hollywood society of that period and The Hotel California was used as an abstract place introducing all that encompassed Hollywood at the time.

So, he may indeed have meant wine, probably an over-priced label fitting of the character’s desire for the fame and riches Hollywood could bring.