She won several of the most prestigious titles in sommelier. The Frenchwoman Pascaline Lepeltier combines practices at Chambers, in New York, and theory on the wine of tomorrow in a powerful book, “Mille Vignes”. An invitation to “open your palace and your mind”.
words collected by Ophélie Neiman
Pascaline Lepeltier is a French sommelier adored by her French and American peers. Also extraordinary: before she is passionate about wine, she chained Hypokhâgne, Khâgne and a mastery of philosophy on language in Bergson. She produced an unprecedented double in 2018 by winning the titles of Best Sommelier in France and Best Worker in France in Sommellerie. Very committed to plain wines, she works in the Chambers restaurant, in Manhattan (New York), and has just published a book that makes a lot of talk, a thousand vines (Hachette, 360 pages, 45 euros). In 2023, this 41 -year -old woman will represent France in the competition for the best sommelier in the world.
Your book, “Mille Vignes”, compiles a considerable number of wine studies. It leads to rethinking the vine, wine landscapes and tasting as a whole. His subtitle is ambitious: “Thinking about the wine of tomorrow”. In what state of mind did you write it?
When Hachette contacted me, in 2019, I started to teach a lot, in New York as in France. I was frustrated by the way we learn wine, by heart, without questioning. I want to invite people to think, because I am tired of always seeing the same preconceived ideas on viticulture, the same selections of wine in wine merchants, in the newspapers, the same ways to talk about it. You have to stop sclerosing wines in categories or in immutable knowledge. My academic past means that I like to ask myself questions and dig the answers. As my wife says, I like to complexify what is simple.
I would like this book to give keys to understand why and how we got there. Explain that, in the construction of each name, alcohol or oenological practice, there are more or less justifiable human decisions. Lighting contemporary reality by its developments allows you to accept the changes of tomorrow. Because many things must move: viticulture, tasting, marketing … in a sense, my book is political.
Is wine political?
Yes, because you have to see wider. Wine is linked to agriculture and food, which are fundamentally political. On quality, quality mode of production issues. The problem is that the chain has extended a lot between the producer and the end consumer. We no longer know where the products come from. However, the more the chain is distended, the more difficult it is to ensure that the environment in which we evolve allows you to eat with good quality in the long term.
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