Tastevin
The Tastevin (from French. Taster , tâter or tester , which corresponds to the German “try”) is a small, flat, cup-like tasting bowl made of metal with a handle and often with a thumb surface, which was previously used for professional sensory analysis of wine . The tastevin is often worn by wine tasters and sommeliers on a leather strap or chain around the neck.
In France, however, tastevin is also called a pipette with which a sample is drawn from the bunghole of a barrel. This is a tube made of glass or silver-plated metal with a metal handle on top. This lifter was the complement to the Tastevin.
use
A sip of the wine to be tasted is poured into the bowl . The reflective, metallic surface of the asymmetrical relief decoration and its bulges and depressions allow the taster to judge the color of the wine at different densities in the incident light.
A tastevin is not suitable for tasting sparkling wine or champagne , as it cannot be used to judge the perlage.
history
The forerunners of the Tastevin were flat drinking bowls, as they were in the Mycenaean , Cretan and Asia Minor cultures from around 1500 BC. Chr. In ancient times and in the ancient times were in use. These were originally simple cup-like ladles made of clay, terracotta and ceramic, but also made of wood and metal. With them the drink could be scooped out of vessels such as amphorae or craters . The bowl had an elongated handle or ring through which the index finger could be inserted so that it did not get wet. With this device the wine was removed, tested and drunk.
In the 15th century, a small cup with smooth or embossed walls was called taste vin in Burgundy . In Languedoc the device was called tasson , tassot , tassette and tasse à vin . In England the first sample bowls of this kind were mentioned in the 14th century. The highlight of the Tastevin was in the 18th century, when goldsmiths artfully crafted the embossed, embossed and chased sample bowls. Often times the names of the owners and a date were engraved. Tastevins were intended for professional wine tasters and also had to be sturdy as they were used on shopping trips in wine cellars. That is why they were mostly made of silver. Not many tastevins were made after 1800.
In Burgundy, Tastevins were still used in the wine cellar up to the end of the 20th century because, unlike in the glass, the clarity and color intensity of a wine can be assessed even in dim and weak lighting.
Modern sensory tasting methods rely on the tasting glass , as you can judge the color of the wine and its light reflections, especially against a white background. (There are also special tasting glasses made of opaque glass, which are used, for example, to taste wines, where the color shades of the wines should not influence the assessment.)
The Tastevin is valued today as a cultural and historical gem of wine history. Originals can have an antiquarian value. Wine fraternities in particular cultivate its memory as a traditional tasting device. In Burgundy, there is a conference dedicated to Tastevin, the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin .
literature
- R. Mazenot: Le tastevin à travers les siècles. Grenoble 1973.
- Émile Peynaud : The high school for wine connoisseurs. Albert Müller Verlag, Stuttgart a. a. 1984, ISBN 3-275-00843-9 .
swell
- ↑ a b c Émile Peynaud: The high school for wine connoisseurs. Albert Müller Verlag, Stuttgart a. a. 1984, ISBN 3-275-00843-9 , pp. 98 f.
- ↑ Jancis Robinson: The Oxford Wine Lexicon. Hallwag Verlag, Munich 2003, p. 726.
