It’s a story that goes back many years and that has charmed both Gods and thier servants. Both the grapevine and wine have many a story to tell.
An ingenious alchemy combining the types of grape, the soil, the winemaker, the climate…
An incredible desire to live for this twisting plant in permanent mutation – one which the spring lures into developing fresh and gracious curves, with the acidity of fresh sorrel, and then one that offers the best it can give by exploding with grapes in the autumn!
However, once the winemaking cycle is closed, what actually remains for this talented vine who has managed to brave all the elements in its lifetime like drought, rain and frost ?
Now winter arrives, putting a final term to this cycle, and the winemaker drags away his wheelbarrow of prunings, just like a sentence, condemning most of these to the bonfire.
Some will be burned on the spot, whilst others will be used to grill a succulent cut of meat or a beef cutlet, for an audience of avid connaisseurs of this epicurian practice..
Apart from this barbarianism, there is one form of life that remains, like a cry in the dark that no one else can claim, but that nevertheless keeps up with the perception of nobility that wine can evoke in itself, and in the minds of men…: the Vinoglyphes.
So it is just before this last execution that I seem to be their last hope! I walk around the vineyard, focussed on the well aligned rows, they stand to attention as I walk by.. and suddenly, there it is in the cold, in front of me, naked, exposing her entrails ..
A whole world therefore opens up for the privileged one who can see it…
Curves, spirals, forked bindings, looks of characters that have been « mimicked » like a language sculpted from the plant !
Sometimes I need to look twice to translate the coded message, like an adventurer or discoverer worthy of Champollion. So I collect the fragments of these short messages and take them to my workshop where I put them together and try to work out their meaning, sometimes faced with a fait accompli..
That’s why these exhibits are real scavenger hunts and artistic intrigues that remain true to their name « vino » and « glyphs » .. Some of them are quite obvious in their meaning.. and others, this science not being as precise as an alphabet, may emanate a very personal message, which will prompt many philosophical discussions with others in their presence, accompanied of course by a drop of good vintage wine…
