We missed an important anniversary by a few months. In 2022, it was 200 years ago that Louis Pasteur was born. Pasteur is a person that every wine lover must honour. His importance to the development of wine cannot be emphasized enough.
He grew up in Arbois in the Jura region and lived here for part of his life. He bought a small vineyard outside of town to be able to carry out his experiments at the request of Emperor Napoleon III. These experiments would later explain a lot both in terms of the wine’s fermentation process and diseases that the vines suffer from.
For example, he realized that heating could prevent certain defects in the wine. Pasteurization was born, even if its most important applications would not be for wine.
A milestone for wine production was his research and explanations about the microorganisms that cause the wine to ferment. Pasteur also developed a vaccine for rabies. Among many other things.
Read more: OIV.
