Giglioli-Fele2016
| Giglioli-Fele2016 | |
|---|---|
| BibType | ARTICLE |
| Key | Giglioli-Fele2016 |
| Author(s) | Pier Paolo Giglioli, Giolo Fele |
| Title | The knowledge of sommeliers: toward an ethnography of wine tasting |
| Editor(s) | |
| Tag(s) | Wine Tasting, Teaching, Sensory Analysis, Subject-Object Phenomenology, Intersubjectivity, Categorial Analysis, Taste |
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| Year | 2016 |
| Language | English |
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| Month | |
| Journal | Etnografia e ricerca qualitativa |
| Volume | |
| Number | 1 |
| Pages | 53–72 |
| URL | Link |
| DOI | 10.3240/83056 |
| ISBN | |
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Abstract
How can the unavoidable subjectivity of taste experience be transformed into the intersubjectivity of wine tasting? We suggest, first, that the object of wine tasting is not a «natural» object, but an object «constructed» by means of discursive practices and tasting techniques that narrow the taster's subjectivity and direct her attention towards certain specific properties of wine; second, that professional tasters acquire these practices and techniques, and master their application to concrete instances of wine tasting, as a result of a learning process led by experienced teachers. On the basis of a close ethnographic analysis of apprentice sommelier classes, we single out and illustrate four techniques used by teachers: calibrazione - the fine-tuning of beginners' perceptions in order to approach the tasting experience carefully and attentively; magnificazione - the highlighting of select features of the object of taste; attesa e considerazione - the suspension of judgement and the diachronical revisitation of the tasting experience; cristallizzazione - the final determination and inscription in a tasting sheet of the most relevant taste components of a given wine. All these practices are eminently reflexive, implying a continuous attention of the taster to his/her tasting activity and an interaction between wine descriptors and taste experience.
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