Questions of Taste: The Philosophy of Wine

254 Pages·2007·1.005 MB·English

by  Barry C. Smith

Contents
Front Matter .....................................................3
Title Page .....................................................3
Publisher Information ...................................4
Contributors .................................................5
Foreword ......................................................7
Acknowledgements ........................................8
Questions of Taste ...........................................10
Introduction ...............................................10
Chapter One ..............................................18
Chapter Two ..............................................39
Chapter Three .............................................61
Chapter Four ............................................102
Chapter Five ............................................124
Chapter Six ..............................................155
Chapter Seven ..........................................170
Chapter Eight ...........................................185
Chapter Nine ...........................................215
Chapter Ten .............................................232
Back Matter ..................................................253
Also Available ...........................................253
QUESTIONS OF TASTE
The Philosophy of Wine
Edited by Barry C. Smith
Publisher Information
First published in 2007 by
Signal Books Limited
36 Minster Road Oxford OX4 1LY
www. signalbooks.co.uk
Digital edition converted and distributed in 2013 by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
© Barry C. Smith and the contributors, 2007
All rights reserved. The whole of this work, including all text and
illustrations, is protected by copyright. No parts of this work may
be loaded, stored, manipulated, reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying and recording, or by any information, storage
and retrieval system without prior written permission from the
publisher, on behalf of the copyright owner.
Cover Design: Baseline Arts Printed in India
Contributors
KENT BACH is a philosopher of mind and language from San
Francisco State University who has written extensively on mind and
language. He is the author of Thought and Reference (OUP 1994),
and Linguistic Communication and Speech Acts (1979) with Michael
Harnish.
STEVE CHARTERS is a Master of Wine who lectures in Wine
Studies at Edith Cowan University in Australia. He is the author of
Wine and Society: The Social and Cultural Context of a Drink (2006)
and the entry on ‘Wine quality’ in The Oxford Companion to Wine
(2006). From 2007 he will be Professor of Champagne Management
at Reims Management School.
TIM CRANE is a philosopher of mind and metaphysics at
University College, London and Director of the University of
London’s Institute of Philosophy. He has written extensively on
the philosophy of mind and consciousness. He is author of The
Mechanical Mind (Penguin 1997) and Elements of Mind (OUP
2004). He has written on excess in The World of Fine Wine.
OPHELIA DEROY has the agregation in philosophy. She is
a member of the Institut Jean Nicod in Paris, and has written
articles on metaphysics. She lectures in philosophy of science at the
University of Paris XII.
PAUL DRAPER is a graduate in philosophy from Stanford
University and chief wine-maker at Ridge Wines, California. He
was Decanter Man of the Year in 2001. In 2006 his 1970 Montebello
was ranked first in the anniversary tasting of the Judgment of Paris
comparison between Bordeaux and Californian wines.
JAMIE GOODE is a trained biochemist and an accomplished
wine writer who runs the highly informative website, wineanorak.
com. He is the author of Wine Science (2006) for which he won a
Glenfiddich Food and Drink Award.
ANDREW JEFFORD is a distinguished wine writer and critic. He
has won five Glenfiddich Food and Drink awards, and is the author
of the highly acclaimed The New France, and Peat, Smoke and Spirit
on Islay whisky.
ADRIENNE LEHRER is a Professor Emerita in the Linguistics
Department of Arizona and author of Wine and Conversation
(Indiana University Press 1983) in which she analyses the language
people use to talk about wine.
GLORIA ORIGGI is a philosopher who specialises in social
epistemology. She is a member of the CNRS and the Institut Jean
Nicod in Paris. She was a visiting fellow at the Italian Institute at
Columbia University, and has published widely on the philosophy
of mind, language, and the social transmission of knowledge.
ROGER SCRUTON is a distinguished philosopher and writer,
and also wine correspondent for the New Statesman. He has written
books on music, art, architecture, Kant and Hegel and is the author
of A Guide to Modern Philosophy.
BARRY C. SMITH is a philosopher at the School of Philosophy
at Birkbeck College and Deputy Director of the University of
London’s Institute of Philosophy. He has held visiting positions
at the University of California, Berkeley and the Ecole Normale
Superieure in Paris. He edited The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy
of Language (OUP 2006 with E. Lepore) and has written on ‘Wine
and Philosophy’ for The Oxford Companion to Wine (2006).
Foreword
Could this book represent the most fun you can have with wine
without drinking a single drop?
Admittedly as a wine writer and one of Oxford s first graduates
in maths and philosophy, I might be expected to find a book on
philosophy and wine of particular interest, but I must admit that
I have not read any philosophy for thirty years so I approached
this manuscript with my mind in shamefully untutored state. Yet I
found these articles perfectly comprehensible, even quite gripping.
I believe that any intelligent wine drinker - and even some teetotal
philosophers - will find an enormous amount to savour in the pages
that follow
Of course no-one will agree with every word. That is hardly the
point of philosophy. But this book is hugely enjoyable and admirably
clearly written. I can imagine a legion of wine lovers lapping up its
bracing engagement with so many of the topics that concern us all
every time we sip a wine or read a tasting note. There is no shortage
of good taste, cogent argument, intriguing allusion and above all
rich stimulation here. It deserves a wide non-academic readership
and should give every bit as much pleasure as a favourite lecturer or
particularly treasured wine.
Jancis Robinson London
October 2006
Acknowledgements
The current collection of essays develops ideas originally pursued
at an international conference entitled Philosophy and Wine: from
Science to Subjectivity, run by the Institute of Philosophy (then The
Philosophy Programme) at the University of London’s School of
Advanced Study in December 2004. It was the first ever conference
on the philosophy of wine, and it brought together scholars, wine
writers and wine-makers to discuss philosophy and wine. The success
of the conference and subsequent press attention demonstrated the
wide interest in the topic. This volume is based on the proceedings
of that conference together with additional commissioned essays.
The plans for the conference were conceived at a dinner party
held by Jean Hewitson, and it is with deep affection that I would
like to thank her for her warmth, generosity and encouragement
for this project. At that planning dinner were Jancis Robinson,
Nick Lander and Tim Crane, and I would like to thank them for
excellent advice and ready enthusiasm. On that occasion we drank
Ridge Montebello 1992 and 1993 and Jancis Robinson suggested
that we invite Paul Draper to speak at the conference. I am grateful
to Paul for participating in the conference and for very generously
providing the wines at the dinner that followed. The conference
included a tutored tasting of Olivier Leflaive’s white burgundies,
led by Adam Brett Smith of Corney and Barrow, and I would like
to thank him for such an informative and engaging talk, and also
thank his assistant Laura Taylor for organizing the wines. The red
tasting of Ridge wines was led by Paul Draper, and I would like
to thank Jasper Morris of Berry Bros, and Rudd for organizing the
wines and for his contributions at the conference. Andrew Jefford
played an invaluable role at the tastings, stepping in as resident critic
and offering his precise and rapier like responses to each wine. I am
very grateful to him for treating all who were there to such a display
of skill. The complex arrangements for the conference, before and
on the day, were conducted in the usual exemplary way under the
excellent stewardship of Dr. Shahrar Ali and I would like to offer
personal thanks and gratitude to him for all his help. My greatest
thanks goes to Michael Dwyer, an exemplary editor whose good
sense, sound editorial advice, patience and commitment made this
project possible.
The final work on volume was completed in Burgundy and
I would like to thank Laurent Glaise, Yann Lioux, Nicolas Potel,
Xavier Meney, Vincent Dauvissat, Jean-Claude Rateau, Peter Piouze,
Jean-Pierre Cropsal and Ophelia Deroy for generously sharing with
me their knowledge, passion and wines.
Introduction
Philosophy and wine have many connections and some similarities,
yet there has been to date no sustained study of the relationship
between the two. The time has come to examine these themes and
continue where philosophers of the past left off.
Wine was part of philosophy’s early origins in ancient Greece
where wine was drunk at the symposium to ease the tongue and
encourage discussion, but it was not itself the subject of discussion.
When philosophers attended to wine they often departed from
philosophy as we see in Plato’s apology for wine at the beginning
of The Laws, or in the British Empiricist philosopher John Locke’s
study of wine and agricultural practices in France. Wine was often
appreciated by philosophers and they saw fit to tell us which wines
they favoured. The Scottish philosopher David Hume liked claret
and the Rhennish wines, while the German transcendental idealist,
Immanuel Kant, declares that he likes the wine of the Canary Islands.
Both philosophers valued wine and company. Hume recommended
drinking and making merry with friends whenever philosophy
seemed to lead us to frustration or despair. Kant believed that wine,
drunk in moderation, could soften men’s characters and lead them
to show the very best of their natures. In this way, wine was seen as
means to something else, and for Kant it was not worth considering
in itself. For Hume, however, wine provides the best example when
contemplating the issue of whether there is a standard of taste. We
shall return to Hume’s concerns below. But first let us reflect on the
way we consider wine. We do not take it simply as a means to an
end. We pay a good deal of attention to it, as an object of care, value
and specific pleasure. We buy bottles and keep them, knowing when
to open them, choosing which dishes best accompany them. We
try to discover more about wines and about the labels on precious
bottles. We seem to take wine as an end and not a means: a worthy