A l'UM la science [S03-ep07] : Understanding oenology

This week in A l'UM la science, Fabienne Remize, biology researcher and director of theUMR sciences pour l'œnologie presents the book she co-wrote with her colleague Véronique Cheynier: Le vin, 60 clés pour comprendre l'œnologie. In the second half of the program, Hadrien Blayac, biology technician at SMELpresents the average service to the sea. Broadcast every Wednesday at 6pm on Divergence FM 93.9.

So wine is on today's menu. Whether it's red, white or rosé, sparkling or cooked, natural or mysterious like sail wine, we drink it to the dregs.

But how long has this love affair between man and the vine been going on? The first traces of wild grape seeds date back over 50 million years, but it wasn't until 11,000 BC that the Stone Age gave rise to viticulture in the Caucasus and the Fertile Crescent.

Since then, this beverage has never ceased to occupy our minds and bodies. It is found in many myths and legends around the world. In the West, it was Noah who planted the first vine, and a little further east, Gilgamesh. Wherever they take root, vines and wine are an attribute of wisdom, spirituality and even divinity. Wine is also often associated with blood, as in Christianity or among the Egyptians, where it is the blood of giants. Of course, it is also a source of trouble and danger, an ambivalence that defines Dyonisos and the bacchanalia of his Roman counterpart, and justifies its prohibition in Islam. As far as medicine is concerned, in 460 BC Hippocrates recommended its "limited but beneficial" use, a debate from which we are still not out of the woods 2500 years later.

So, to help you become wine experts at your next Christmas dinner, we're joined today by a biologist. Fabienne Remize is a specialist in wine micro-organisms and heads the UMR sciences pour l'œnologie. With her SPO colleague Véronique Cheynier, she has co-written a book for the general public entitled Le Vin: 60 clés pour comprendre l'œnologie (Wine: 60 keys to understanding oenology ), published by Quae.

In the second half of the program, we continue our discovery of the Station méditerranée environnement littoral, and this time we take a look at the sea resources department with its manager, Hadrien Blayac, a biology technician.

At UM la science you've got the program, here we go!

Coproduction: Divergence FM / Université de Montpellier
Animation: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interviews: Aline Périault / Lucie Lecherbonnier
Reporting and editing: Aline Périault / Lucie Lecherbonnier
Production : Alice Rollet

Listen to the program "A l'UM la science" on Divergence FM 93.9