Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables and Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Map of France
- Introduction
- Part I Reinventing the Vine for Quality Wine Production
- Part II Laying the Foundations of Oenology
- Part III Oenology in Champagne, Burgundy and Languedoc
- Part IV Oenology in Bordeaux
- 10 The Pasteurian Oenology of Ulysse Gayon
- 11 The Ionic Gospel of the New Oenology
- 12 The Institute of Oenology
- Conclusion: Mopping-up Operations or Contemporary Oenology as Normal Science
- Select Bibliography
- Index
10 - The Pasteurian Oenology of Ulysse Gayon
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables and Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Map of France
- Introduction
- Part I Reinventing the Vine for Quality Wine Production
- Part II Laying the Foundations of Oenology
- Part III Oenology in Champagne, Burgundy and Languedoc
- Part IV Oenology in Bordeaux
- 10 The Pasteurian Oenology of Ulysse Gayon
- 11 The Ionic Gospel of the New Oenology
- 12 The Institute of Oenology
- Conclusion: Mopping-up Operations or Contemporary Oenology as Normal Science
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Emile Peynaud once remarked that the value of oenologists is a function of the quality of the regional wines in which they make some improvement. The reputation of the Bordeaux school of oenology certainly owes much to the fame of the wines of Bordeaux; it is also true that the quality of the grands vins owes much to the work of the school's oenologists since the middle of the nineteenth century, especially since the 1930s. Several years ago Pascal Ribéreau-Gayon, then director of the Institut d'oenologie (made a faculty in 1995) of the University of Bordeaux, observed that the grands crus of Bordeaux, far from being a gift from nature, are “the fruit of a discipline imposed by man upon nature”. Not that past generations had let nature pursue her wanton ways – to continue this Baconian metaphor – but winemaking was the result of centuries of practice resolutely based on empiricism. Ampelology and oenology brought improvements in the quality of wine that were based on the comforting certainties of experimental science. True, the cognitive basis for these scientific specialties already existed, but it was their institutionalization with an input into production that made the difference.
In all the provincial universities of the nineteenth century there was a strong connection between faculties of science and local economies. Chemists were often at the forefront in forging the connections.
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- Information
- Science, Vine and Wine in Modern France , pp. 275 - 287Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996