A new 3-year presidency

Two points of the agenda were highly expected at this General Assembly. Firstly, the election to the OIV presidency, which was entrusted to Luigi Moio. The new President now assumes a 3-year mandate, succeeding Regina Vanderlinde. The Scientific and Technical Committee has also been renewed with new heads of working bodies elected.

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An Italian has been elected President of the International Organisation of Vine and Wine for the next three years, succeeding the Brazilian Regina Vanderlinde.

Luigi Moio is Professor of Oenology at the University of Naples and Director of the Vine and Wine Science Section of the same University.

For over 25 years he has been involved in the sensory, biochemical and technological aspects of the aroma of wine. He is the author of around 250 scientific publications with an H-Index of 41 for Google Scholar, 32 for Scopus and 32 for WOS, with over 4800 (Google Scholar), 2800 (Scopus) and 2900 (WOS) quotations.

Since 1998 he is a scientific expert for the Italian Ministry of Agricultural Policies. From 2009 to 2014 he was Chairman of the Technology Expert Group of the OIV (International Organisation of Vine and Wine) and from 2015 to 2018 of the Oenology Commission. He was the OIV’s 2nd Vice-President.

He is a member of the Georgofili Academy and the Italian Academy of Vine and Wine. Author of books and articles on the scientific aspects of oenology, he is often interviewed on Italian national network broadcasts on issues related to the wine sector.

In 2016, he published the book Il Respiro del Vino for Mondadori. A scientific essay on the aroma of wine that won several awards. The book is in its tenth edition with around 30,000 copies sold in Italy. In 2020 the French edition of the book Il Respiro del Vino was published in France with the title: Le Souffle du Vin for the publishing house Editions France Agricole.

In 2001 he founded the Quintodecimo winery where he produces quality wines with the most prestigious denominations in Campania.

At this General Assembly the Presidents of the scientific bodies were also elected:

Commission I Viticulture
Ahmet Altindisli (Turkey) succeeds Vittorino NOVELLO (Italy)
Commission II Enology
Fernando Zamora (Spain) succeeds Dominique TUSSEAU (France)
Commission III Law and Economy
Yvette van der Merwe (South Africa) succeeds Dimitar ANDREEVSKI (Bulgaria)
Commission IV Safety and Health
Pierre-Louis Teissedre (France) succeeds Gheorghe ARPENTIN (Moldavia)
Sub-commission Methods of Analysis
Manuel Humberto Manzano (Argentina) succeeds Markus HERDERICH (Australia)
Sub-commission Non-fermented products, table grapes and raisins
Luís Carlos Ferreira Peres de Sousa (Portugal) succeeds Alejandro MARIANETTI (Argentina)

Thomas Jefferson, wine’s herald

Azélina Jaboulet-Vercherre
Associate Professor, Ferrandi Paris

Every man has two countries, his own and France¹.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), a Founding Father of the American democracy and author of the Declaration of Independence (4 July 1776), was a passionate advocate of wine. His connoisseurship makes him both a symbol of his time and a pioneer, a tasty paradox.

Wine, the banner of moderation

Cosmopolitism, humanist culture and philosophical opinions: Jefferson championed all facets of the Enlightenment. He was categorical: wine is different from spirits. But he went even further, as a faithful opponent to the early prohibitionist mystique. He showcased wine as a cure for alcoholism, thereby joining a long medical tradition, from the Hippocratic Collection onward, advocating its power as a therapeutic tool.

An ambassador in the vineyards

While in Paris as Minister Plenipotentiary (1784-1789), the “foreign gentleman” (as he liked to call himself) anonymously travelled throughout the French vinelands, further reinforcing his convictions of wine’s benefits on one’s physical and mental health². His notebooks take us in the footsteps of this aesthete of wine and vineyards, which he also appreciated for their beauty³. The result is an enticing series of highly personalized wine routes, where the picturesque sits alongside detailed observations. Indeed, through his notes, wine appears as a vibrant character. With panache, he depicts inspiring portraits: wine’s hall of fame.

Diplomatic value

Jefferson had trustworthy tastes and held on to his preferences. “America’s first wine aficionado” developed a classification for Bordeaux wines – a classification comparable to the famous 1855 list, based on data provided by the industry’s brokers at the request of Napoleon III⁴. Jefferson also took into account material (price and fiscal impact) and technical (viticultural methods) aspects. Yet, his approach appears as more sensory, more sensualist.

Jefferson did not content himself with the two starred wine regions (Burgundy and Bordeaux); he also surveyed southern France, northern Italy, as well as the Rhine, Moselle and Champagne. Over time and as his tasting profile flourished, he complemented his wine journey with the Rhône, the Languedoc-Roussillon, Spain and even Portugal. His curiosity, energy and ability to concentrate all served his cause, leading him to brave the difficulties of shipping wine (duration, weather conditions, pirate attacks). He preferred to trade directly with producers - for pricing conditions as much as for conversation - to such an extent that he became an advisor to the tax authorities. A clever use of the diplomatic channel to be reconsidered.

A celebration of wine

Thanks to Lafayette, to name just one of his illustrious acquaintances, he entered the most brilliant circles of Enlightened Paris. One can easily envision him in these salons, his mind as ‘brisk’ as some of the wines he loved.

Jefferson was by no means an ordinary wine collector. He considered drinking as a celebration, yet to be handled with care. Wine is a serious thing, he devised, unchallenged. Every step is crucial to the optimal wine experience, a combination of sensation, emotion, and culture.

The gentleman diplomat found in wine the perfect tool to illustrate the cardinal virtue of temperance. He emphasized its social role, “savoir-vivre” being at the core of the “art of drinking”. And at the time, holding one’s liquor was the sign of Frenchness – something he deemed worth exporting and duplicating.

Let us give justice to Jefferson’s message: wine, the civilizational drink par excellence, is education’s best ambassador.

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¹ Thomas Jefferson, cited in Bernard Ginestet, Thomas Jefferson à Bordeaux et dans quelques autres vignes d’Europe (Bordeaux: Mollat, 1996, p. 118).
² From the rich bibliography on Wine and Jefferson, see John Hailman, Thomas Jefferson on wine (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2006); Jim Gabler, Passions, The Wines and Travels of Thomas Jefferson (Baltimore: Bacchus Press, 1995); Jim Gabler, An Evening with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson: Dinner, Wine, and Conversation (Baltimore: Bacchus Press, 2006).
³ Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson’s European Travel Diaries, ed. James McGrath Morris, Persephone Weene (Ithaca: Isidore Stephanus Sons, 1987).
⁴ Frederick J. Ryan, Jr., Wine and the White House: a History (The White House Historical Association, 2020, p. 20).