6533b7d9fe1ef96bd126bf73

RESEARCH PRODUCT

The gustatory and spiritual emotion. The wine, the soul and the emotion.

subject

description

"This building does not resemble any known shape because it is meant to be an evocation of the soul of wine, between the river and the city" 1 This is how the architectural concept of the City of Wine Civilizations in Bordeaux is defined. A place, we are told, where it is a question of "privileging emotion, sensations and dreams", for an opening scheduled for 2016. "An evocation of the soul of wine", that's what it's all about. Obviously, by reference to "the soul of wine", we reach the ultimate point of sensitive perception but also one of the most effective topoi of the discourse on wine. We can only agree on the beauty and depth of the formula. For all that, it is impossible to define this soul of wine, apart from its poetic function and the play of metaphor. As always, in the sensitive world, one must look for in the figurative potential what gives power and depth to the figurative. For the purposes of communication, we must draw, in semiotic terms, on the figurative resources of the plane of expression to ensure the expressive value of the formula. It is no coincidence that wine makes people talk, dream, or awaken so many images and evocations. Whether lyrical, emotional or technical, idiosyncratic or convivial, it calls the verb, the commentary, the speech. Difficult, if not impossible to describe on its own, the sensation triggers and spreads the metaphor, stimulates the mind, to overcome the approximation. Beyond the sensations, a whole figurative universe unfolds. From the deepest and most mysterious forms of creation, between earthly and celestial, to the radiant moment of consumption, to the social spectacle of tasting, a world of actors and actresses takes on the power of making an image in wine. A world of images that becomes autonomous, that deterritorializes itself from the first sensation, until it takes shape and thus gives soul to the wine. The basic chemistry, already complex, very quickly composes with the alchemy of taste, even if the mental geography of wine is shifting.