In ancient Rome there was the figure of the praegustator. That is, that slave whose task was to taste the monarchs’ food and drink hours before putting it on the table. It is known that Mark Antony was obsessed with the idea that his beloved Cleopatra wanted to poison him, hence there was no banquet without a taster, nor a dish without a prior tasting. And what about Hitler! Who assembled a team of women (specifically, 15) destined to test everything that he was then going to ingest. Nothing like reading Rosella Postorino’s book, The Taster (Lumen 2018), to discover this story told from the voice of the only survivor of that group, Margot Wölk, the Führer’s taster.
The history of tasters has accompanied us throughout the centuries. A role that has been evolving, from being a risky job to a prestigious profession. Nowadays, knowing the whys of wine, understanding what we are drinking and feeling the need to put words to the pleasure of tasting it lead us to dive into bookstores and extract from them those latest bibliographical references that lead us to the magical world. of the tasters.
Let’s start at the beginning: with the grape, the first wine and the first taster. To do this, we should open the pages of the book The incredible history of wine. From prehistory to the present day, 10,000 years of adventure (Editorial Standard) by Benoist Simmat and Daniel Casanave. A book in comic format, where alter ego of the authors appear incorporated into the story, acting as omniscient narrators. “According to the sacred text, the father of wine was not Bacchus, but Noah. In Genesis he was called ‘the cultivator’, because the first plant he grew after getting off his ark was a vine. And he was also considered the first to make wine and the first to taste it. From this… history spans nearly ten millennia,” write Simmat and Casanave.
Possibly, Noé was the first taster in history, but the first time a book defined what a taste is was the Authorities Dictionary in 1729, in volume II: “The tasting is the test that is carried out on wine and other liquors to know its state and whether it is made or not.” Years later, Emile Peynaud and Jacques Blouin, in the book The taste of wine (Editorial Mundi-Prensa), defined the act of tasting as “carefully testing a product whose quality we want to appreciate, is subjecting it to our senses, particularly that of taste and smell: it is trying to get to know it by looking for its different defects and its different qualities, in order to express them; It is to study, analyze, describe, define, judge, classify.” All these references appear in the book by the journalist, writer and communicator, Juan Barbacil, Brief history of tasting in Spain (edited by TREA). “I wrote this book because I realized that there were many references about wine tasting, but none that explained what the beginnings were like, who started modern wine tasting in Spain in the 20th century,” Barbacil explains to EL PAÍS Gastro. Thus, the book breaks down the world of wine, clarifying the whys behind each production, recording the names and surnames of those who have marked the history of wine tasting in our country and drawing us a map of this profession “No There are bad or good wines, every moment has its wine. That is the richness that leads us to think that we have a lifetime to taste different wines. And it is necessary. Yes, tasting practice is necessary. The greater the knowledge, the more quality is demanded later.”
Perhaps to acquire knowledge about wine and how to taste it, you have to get The grammar of wine, by the journalist and writer, Marco Pozzali (Editorial Gribaudo). The copy delves into the origins of the wine, its characteristics and peculiarities. And it leaves us with a brief glossary of fundamental terms to know what we are drinking: what is a cru and a decanter, what are we talking about when we say ‘garage wines’ and what does the sommelier mean when he says ‘this wine lacks acidity’.
From poison tasters to wine experts, luxury sommeliers and prestigious winemakers. The figure of the taster and everything that surrounds him has stimulated the imagination of artists throughout history, resulting in some of the great works of literature or cinematography. Along these lines, years ago the brothers Yuko and Shin Kibayashi, driven by their passion for wine, wrote The drops of God (Kodansha publisher). A collection of manga that have not been translated into Spanish, but have been brought to television through the series God’s drops (Apple TV+). The book, the series, tell us the story of two stepbrothers who, after the death of their father, find themselves involved in several challenges that will test their skills in the art of tasting. Whoever successfully overcomes all the challenges will be worthy of a multimillion-dollar inheritance. What would we be able to do for money, for prestige, for ego? How far could we risk in an all or nothing situation? These last questions remain floating in our unconscious when we read The tastingby Roald Dahl (Nordica Libros). In this little story, whose first publication was in The Ladies’ Home Journal (1945), the author presents us with the uncomfortable situation of six characters and a bet: “If you are able to guess what wine you are going to have for dinner tonight, you will stay with my daughter.” This is how the story begins and how does it end? Open a wine and learn to taste. It’s the best advice.
#tasting #leitmotiv #book