feature / ferment / geosensory tasting A dialogue with Jacky Rigaux, descendant of the gourmets
Jacky Rigaux is the author of several books. The best-known are Le Réveil des Terroirs: Défense et Illustration des Climats de Bourgogne and La Dégustation Géosensorielle. An active retiree, Rigaux still teaches in Burgundy and Strasbourg. He travels the world with a focus on geosensory tasting, to which he devotes workshops, and he also advises producers of terroir wines.
When did you first hear about gourmets? It was during a tasting with Bourguignon Henri Jayer. As I was describing the wine with a host of olfactory descriptors, he looked at me and retorted, “Wine isn’t meant to be sniffed—it’s meant to be drunk!” He was referring to gourmets. He referred me to Lavalle’s Histoire et Statistique de la Vigne et des Grands Vins de la Côte-d’Or. Later, I also found out about gourmets in Les Cinq Sens, by one of our great philosophers, Michel Serre.
Who are these famous gourmets? From the 12th century, wine was traded throughout Europe. In all the major vineyards, wine-trade professionals appeared. They were called gourmets. They existed from the 12th century until the French Revolution. They could tell if the wine in a barrel came from the place indicated on the label. They knew how to recognize them, especially by mouthfeel. They didn’t forget about the aromas, but they knew them through retronasal sensory effect, which is a combination of traditional smell (orthonasal) and taste modalities.
What is your definition of geosensory tasting? Before there was such a thing as sensory analysis tasting, we used the tastevin. Geosensory tasting is associated with the philosophy of climats. The place gives a message in the glass, and this message is tactile. Our gourmets of yesteryear began by putting the wine in their mouths; before assessing anything else, they looked for its feel.
Why has this practice been lost? In the 19th century, technological wines took over, and we lost the gourmet approach. Let’s not forget that in the 1960s and ’70s, the vocabulary of wine tasting was incredibly poor. At that time, wine growers wanted to considerably extend the appellations. The sensory analysis of aromas has become a common denominator, highlighted by the launch of the INAO glass, the development of mass-produced wines from the New World, and America’s penchant for heavily oaked wines.
Why might we want to return to this gourmet tasting? Because we know that gourmets received much more information and signals from the place of origin by starting with taste and mouthfeel. As soon as I started tasting like them, I began to feel more things in the wine. At first, when I was practicing with my friend Henri Jayer, I wasn’t thinking at all about conceptualizing this practice. I was a militant supporter of terroirs—an early ecologist—and gourmet tasting was a way for me to support these hard-fought initiatives.
Yet you conceptualized this method and renamed it… Yes, because the term “gourmet tasting” sounded too much like cooking. It was easier to rename it and talk about it more broadly. Eye, first sniff, second sniff, mouth: analytical tasting respects these stages. What about geosensory tasting? Here, we talk about the four mouthfuls. The first is used to “chew” the wine, to get a good feel for its texture, and to have it in contact with all the tactile sensors in the mouth. On the second pass, we close our eyes and concentrate on what’s happening with the salivation. With the third pass comes the analysis of flavors: acidity, saltiness, bitterness, sweetness, and now umami, thanks to the suggestion of my friend Gabriel Lépousez, a neurobiologist and specialist in sensory perception. Finally, and only on the fourth pass, do aromas come into play, but through retronasal rather than through orthonasal smell.
What role does aroma analysis play in your practice? At first, journalists thought we were denying aromas—but on the contrary! In fact, I’m a champion of aromas. I love the work of sociologist Edgar
98 | THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 87 | 2025
Morin, who said that modern science was based on simplification. That’s what happened with analytical tasting. When he developed it in the 1960s, Jules Chauvet—whom I nevertheless greatly respect—amputated tasting. He said that nasal olfaction was 20,000 times superior to taste. And it’s true that he had an incredible nose!
Does the grape variety still matter? We forget all about the grape variety and focus on the message of the place of origin—that’s where geosensory tasting comes in.
In analytical tasting, we talk about descriptors (violet for Syrah, apricot for Viognier, and so on); is this also the case in geosensorial tasting? Yes, it is. Even if geosensorial tasting has a more holistic objective.
We’ve already mentioned mouthfeel. Salivation is particularly important… A wine from a great terroir is a mouthwatering wine. From the moment it causes salivation, it shows that there’s terroir. There are some monstrous wines that are well built, great on the first taste, but hard to drink on the second. But with a true vin de lieu [wine of place], you can’t help but salivate.
Is geosensory tasting suitable for wine connoisseurs of all levels? Of course it is, because when it comes to the mouth, there’s no room for bullshit. Consistent or thin, warm or cold are all very clear terms. For texture, we have the students touch a variety of fabrics. Around 30% of one’s tactile sensors are located in the mouth. This means that the mouth is just as good at touching as the hand, foot, or skin. All we need to do is rediscover and rehabilitate these capabilities. The enthusiast who begins analysis through the mouth feels much more at ease, because he or she is reconnecting with things that are completely natural. Even if they don’t perceive the purple violet or plum right away, they find the “material” of the wine. The palate is more universal. Mouth sensations are much more easily shared than nose sensations.
Even so, we are not used to describing feel in the mouth. Do your training sessions in Strasbourg provide keys in this direction? Yes, they do. We teach our students to identify tactile markers, those of salivation, but also of different flavors: acidity or what we call “liveliness,” saltiness, bitterness, sweetness, and umami.
What kinds of profiles do your students have? There’s a bit of everything—from critics and winemakers, to amateurs and professionals. In fact, we are currently graduating the first class.
Are all terroirs in all wine-growing regions suitable for geosensory tasting? Of course they are. The Italians, for example, are very interested in this approach, which they can apply to the great Barolos and, increasingly, to the wines of Tuscany. An Italian publisher is going to translate my book. In Spain, Álvaro Palacios also uses this approach. I’m also in contact with Egon Müller and Katharina Prüm. And I’ve just returned from Santa Barbara, California. I regularly run workshops for Chinese amateurs. A geosensory tasting school has opened in Shanghai. Fortunately, they’re used to tasting tea in a similar way.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to take the plunge? Practice! Take part in workshops, for example.
What do you say to skeptics? I leave it to them to read the work of my friend Gabriel Lépousez, a neurobiologist and sensory perception specialist, as well as historians and other experts who have studied gourmets and their practices.
Note A version of this article first appeared in Vinum in October/November 2024. It is reproduced here by kind permission of the author and publisher.
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