Professor David Khayat no longer goes without

GaultMillau: In your opinion, is the quality of the wine we drink the best possible answer to the problem of quantity?

David Khayat: Of course! In fact, we're moving in that direction. People are drinking less, but they're drinking better. To reduce consumption, the answer is certainly to move upmarket, towards wines where the genius of the winemaker and the strength of the terroir come to the fore. Wine is not just fermented grape juice, not just a drink, it's the fruit of the labor of men and women committed to respecting nature. It's amazing, when you think about it: we've managed to educate this little wild vine to the point where, through fermentation, we can make nectars as good as the ones we're lucky enough to drink.

G&M: From a medical point of view, what are the differences between fermentation and distillation? Great wines are all about the magic of fermentation...

D. K.: Yes, absolutely! Distillation produces strong alcohols which, objectively speaking, are not good for your health, except for disinfecting wounds... It's not at all the same thing as wine. Even if the ethanol molecule is the same... We can draw an analogy with radioactivity, the basis of both the atomic bomb and radiotherapy to cure cancer. With the same thing, you can have two products that have neither the same qualities nor the same destinies. As for distillation-fermentation, I have nothing against drinking an old plum or cognac from time to time, but it has nothing to do with fermentation. In one case, it's the work of heat; in the other, it's the work of yeasts that we've kept for years and which allow an expression of terroir. From my point of view, ethanol production has nothing to do with wine production, even if there is ethanol in wine.

G&M: Do you think we could go back to less alcoholic wines?

D. K.: I think that, despite global warming, which tends to give us wines that are increasingly high in alcohol, we could, for health reasons, one day see the production of less alcoholic wines that would retain their taste and organoleptic expressions. For thousands of years, mankind has survived on undrinkable water because it drank wine, but wine that was very, very low in alcohol. That's why we drank so much of it.

G&M: From this point of view, could the return of "piquette" - that little "wine" obtained by wetting the cap of marc with water and which makes it possible to obtain less alcoholic drinks - be interesting?

D. K.: I don't like it, I'm not interested. When I think of lower-alcohol wines, I think of grape juice fermented according to classic winemaking methods. Wine, not wine-based drinks.

G&M: Do you think that wine, which is a complex beverage, can become a truly cultural beverage if it is made explicit?

D. K.: The answer is yes. It's like cinematographic art: you watch a film, and all sorts of things happen to your eyes, ears and brain; it's the same with wine. And then there's the story told by the winemaker, his personal touch. You can sometimes recognize a winemaker's signature because he has put all his specific know-how into his wine. It's like an artist.

G&M: Does this artistic aspect help to combat over-consumption?

D. K.: In any case, all forms of over-consumption are bad. Salt, sugar, driving too fast, going out in the sun too much: human beings aren't made for "too much". We need moments of "too much": those of joy, of celebration; from time to time, we need to have no more limits, especially when we're young... But then, the human being is not technically made for excess. Life is a fatal disease. We spend our lives doing what we call risk reduction, i.e. trying not to die. The whole time between life and death is spent avoiding death. Wine is like Janus: it's both beauty, friendship, sharing, celebration and, at the same time, alcoholism, violence, road accidents... The difference between the two phases is quantity. You have to be reasonable...

G&M: What about food?

D. K.: Yes, for everything. But that doesn't mean you can't have a party from time to time. Moderation is a long-term process.

G&M: Are there any studies showing that frustration - not seeking pleasure where it can be found - has an impact on health or on the onset of disease?

D. K.: As far as frustration with alcohol or wine is concerned, absolutely not. On the other hand, it has been proven that frustration leads to stress, and that stress is sometimes deleterious to human health. Stress has been identified as a cause of cardiovascular disease, metabolic illness and cancer. This stress comes into play when you feel guilty about going out to have fun, or when you become completely frustrated with all pleasure. Once again, life is a matter of balance and moderation, with moments of great intensity, but not beyond a certain capacity of the body to survive it all.

G&M: To conclude, what wines would you take with you to a desert island?

D. K.: I'm lucky enough to have some great wines in my cellar, so I'd say a la-tâche. I also love Paul Jaboulet Aîné's Hermitage "La Chapelle". Naturally, a Château Latour, because I also love the grands crus of the Médoc. But my preference naturally goes to white Burgundies: I'd say a Montrachet, which is perhaps the wine that has given me the most emotion in my life. Basically, I wouldn't like to take just one wine with me, I wouldn't like my life to be made up of the same moment over and over again. I'd like to take several wines with me.

Arrêtez de vous priver, by David Khayat, published by Albin Michel (2021), 224 pages, €19.90.