Hand of God - Chilling thoughts about Domaine des Baumard and the INAO

What does Giovanni Antonio Canal (AKA Canaletto) have in common with Jean Baumard, the Loire wine producer? Both believe in the use of technology as being legitimate to their artistry. The Italian painter famously took advantage of a Camera Obscura to help him sketch his pictures, while the Frenchman favours cryoextraction in the production of his sweet Quarts de Chaume.

Both are, in the view of at least some people, cheats. If you put yourself in the shoes of some of Canaletto’s contemporaries who tried to capture all that perspective using only their brains and eyes, you’d have to feel a little as though he were an athlete on illegal drugs. M Baumard’s neighbours, and a fair few writers, including Jim Budd (in this post) and Alice Feiring feel similarly about M Baumard’s chilling tanks.

I have mixed feelings about this but, predictably to some I guess, I’m inclined to worry less about the method than the outcome. If M Baumard’s wine tastes as good as, or better than his neighbours, does it really matter? Any more than the tools used by Messrs Blumenthal and Adria in their kitchens. (If the Baumard wines do taste less good, that's another matter, but I haven't seen many suggestions that Baumard's quality levels are not good enough for the wines to carry a Grand Crulabel).

Wine is NOT a natural product. Man is involved, at least to the extent of tending, pruning the vines, crushing the grapes and fermenting their juice. Does an extra tool or two really matter that much?

Does banning cryoextraction fall into the same camp as banning irrigation?

As I say, I have less than defined views, but wonder whether too much of this debate is not focused on the way something is made rather than the way it tastes. What I will freely admit is that I’d rather drink a delicious wine from irrigated vines and/or cryoextracted grapes than a less tasty one that accurately reflects the climate of the vintage.