To taste in the best conditions, one must have an adequate and functional organic apparatus, in the anatomical and physiological sense – in particular, not to have a cold!… However, en primeur – and particularly for red wines, the nose is less indispensable than the palate, because wines at this stage of their development most often present themselves as olfactorily discreet, even “closed” – and the most closed are not the least great. Here, much if not most of the game is played on the texture of the wines.
Indeed, we are judging wines in the making – especially the greatest, which time alone will unveil, reveal and unfold on the palate. And this is inscribed in the nascent texture of the wine, hence in that of the grape. We thus contribute, in a way, to weaving taste fibres whose origin is viticultural. Besides, texture means touch, and there is a “touch” of wine on the taste level – which is appreciated and judged at the palate. Now everyone knows, to extend the metaphor, that in matters of texture silk is not linen, nor cotton wool, nor hemp – and that rarely does roughness produce a caress…
It is then up to us, winegrowers and oenologists, in the matter of red wine, to grasp and identify these fibres from the vineyard onwards, to specify their nature during vinification, and to refine their texture during ageing, in order to obtain, in fine – throughout a sort of precise and adjusted weaving – the “fabric” most representative each year of its terroir and its vintage, remembering at each stage this saying of Paul Éluard: “There are no coincidences, there are only appointments”.
