Science, Vine and Wine in Modern France

by Harry W. Paul

• ISBN13: 9780521525213
• ISBN10: 0521525217
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-07-18
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book examines the role of science in the civilization of wine in modern France by examining viticulture, the science of the wine itself, and oenology, the study of winemaking. Together they can boast of at least two major triumphs: the creation of the post-phylloxera vines that repopulated the late-nineteenth-century vineyards devastated by the disease; and the understanding of the complex structure of wine that eventually resulted in the development of the widespread wine models of Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Champagne. For those interested in agriculture, oenologists and historians of France, this is the first analysis of the scientific battle over how to save the French vineyards and the first account of the growth of oenological science in France since Chaptal and Pasteur.

Table of Contents

Preface

Part I. Reinventing the Vine for Quality Wine Production: 1. Death and Resurrection in the Phylloxeric Vineyard

2. Scientific Programs for the Spread of the Grafted Vine

3. Direct Production Hybrids: Quality Wines?

4. The Fall of the Hybrid Empire and the Victory of Vitis vinifera

Part II. Laying the Foundations of Oenology: 5. Jean-Antoine Chaptal

6. Louis Pasteur

Part III. Oenology in Champagne, Burgundy, and Languedoc: 7. Champagne: the Science of Bubbles

8. Burgundy: The Limits of Empirical Science

9. Languedoc-Roussillon: innovations in tradition

Part IV. Oenology in Bordeaux: 10. The pastorian oenology of Ulysse Gayon

11. The Ionic Gospel of the New Oenology

12. The Production of Oenologists

Conclusion: Mopping-up Operations or Contemporary Oenology as Normal Science

Notes

Bibliography

Index.