The thought……… of our General DirectorDr. Francesco Iacono, oenologist
From Oenologist to Oenologist : The figure of the Technical Taster (Assaggiatore)
One day I was chatting with our Director and I pointed out to him how in all of the Americas the figure of the Technical Taster(Assaggiatore) was little known at the level of wineries and winemakers. I asked him: Director, if you had to explain this figure to a winery and a winemaker who obviously do not know this figure, what would you say?
Well, from one winemaker to another, I am looking for an interlocutor who uses, in tasting and describing wines, my same technique and my same language and, above all, that the organoleptic commentary and judgment is associated with a technical application correspondence that allows me to take advantage for professional purposes. Therefore, not more or less poetic descriptions of sensory attributes but pragmatism and objectivity that can conclude with ideas and indications that can allow me to more properly direct my technical choices in the cellar.
With a technical taster(assaggiatore), therefore, I intend to have a dialogue on equal terms, also sharing that only from group tasting can statistically and, therefore, practically useful indications emerge. The taster/sommelier instead has the aim of making a hedonistic/evocative description that gives me little for practical purposes. If a sommelier describes a wine with hints of salty herbs, it does not help me understand how I can obtain them in the cellar, given that there are no chemical correspondences to date that can help me understand what they are and how to obtain them. Although aware that the term salty herbs evokes very captivating and seductive summer Mediterranean marine sensations.
I thank our General Director Dr. Francesco Iacono for giving us a very comprehensive technical opinion
Dr. Francesco Iacono direttore@onav.it
Ovav delegation of Canada canada@onav.it