After the Second World War, the new oenology led to striking and largely beneficial changes in the wine of Bordeaux. The research program there evolved as an institution for producing oenologists and has also developed a fruitful interaction with the Bordelais winemakers appropriate for the “world capital of wine”. Emile Peynaud, one of the key figures in the transformation, has noted the Bordelais conjoncture of research, teaching, and capitalistic production and consumption. The basic work of Jean Ribéreau-Gayon and Peynaud, spread through their texts and articles and through the educational machine, eventually was applied by winegrowers to production and, to some extent, by business to the handling of wine from producer to consumer. The role of the university in this transformation was consecrated by Ribéreau-Gayon's appointment in 1949 as head of the Bordeaux Station agronomique et oenologique. In Peynaud's opinion, Jean Ribéreau-Gayon presided over the birth of a new science. This interpretation flatters Peynaud by making him present at the creation, but one cannot deny that oenology was now firmly based on several scientific disciplines. It was directly affected by what happened in analytical chemistry, physical chemistry, plant physiology, biochemistry dealing with plants and with fermentations, and microbiology. Finally, oenology was solidly established in higher education. The long reign of Ribéreau-Gayon and Peynaud in oenology at Bordeaux had such significance for the region that when they retired in 1976 it was a departmental event, celebrated with all the sentimental pomp French ceremonial genius brings to such occasions.