Tannins: the origin of tastes and colors of the world

By: Clémence Denavit Follow

Do you know where the tastes and colors of the world come from? The sweetness of the perfumes, the color of the fruits? We owe them to the tannins: a family of ubiquitous molecules, polyphenols, whose particularity is to bind to proteins.

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Silently, unwittingly and discreetly, the tannins shape nature, tastes colors, fragrances, protect plants, make us twist our noses, growl with pleasure, wonder about our world.

Marc-André Selosse. RFI / Clémence Denavit

With Marc-André Selosse , biologist, professor at the National Museum of Natural History, and at the University of Gdansk in Poland. His research focuses on the mutual benefits of fungi and his lessons, on microbes, ecology and evolution. He is the author of several books including, in the South Acts editions, " Tastes and colors of the world, a natural history of tannins, ecology, health ", and in 2017 " Never alone ".

South Acts

Note: The botanical society of France (SBF) is organizing, on April 3 and 4, 2020, a 2-day conference: Aux Sources Végétales de notre Alimentation . Two days and 14 mini conferences to take a step back on the place of plants in our diet. From the long history of plants to our plate, their place in the fields and in our diets, how to cook, ferment and fractionate them and also their nutritional quality and their potential toxicity. With the participation of Régis Marcon, chef, and experts - Christophe Lavelle, Marc André Selosse, Arnaud Daguin, Delphine Sicard or Samuel Rebulard.
Registration is free but compulsory: click here.

Wood, grapes and tannins
“In wine there are tannins that are inherited from the grape; when we leave the skins to marinate, as we do for red wine, there we extract even more, because over time we extract the tannins from the skin and seeds, or even from the stalk, this is the axis of cluster. There are tannins in more or less large quantities, skin and seeds, and then there are tannins that can be added which will come from the barrels or today small wood chips added to the tank. Two types of tannins are then present: first the tannins from the wood which can pass into the liquid. By preparing the barrels or the shavings, we heat more or less and this heating will break a giant tannin: the lignin responsible for stiffening the wood. By heating the wood, we break this giant molecule, fragmented, it can pass into the wine. The intensity of heating brings flavors, woody aromas of vanilla will emerge when we heat a little, and if we heat more coffee and anise aromas, more chocolate aromas. So when a wine grower orders a barrel there is a very precise demand in terms of heating intensity. In France, the oak is privileged and especially there are raw oaks coming from places where these trees are stressed, so they need tannins first to defend themselves from the herbivores, and their stress release free radicals and they have also tannins to combat this. So there are more tanniferous tree species than others and also provenances. There has always been this tradition to stabilize the wine to add other vegetable compounds which bring back tannins and bring back antioxidant and antimicrobial power which will control which microbes develop and which will prevent too much oxidation from damaging the aromas wine . "

Tannins, board and gingerbread. RFI / Clémence Denavit

► To go further :
- Never alone, Marc-André Selosse, Actes Sud editions
- I eat therefore I am, exhibition nourishing the mind as well as the body, at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris, until June 2020.
- Tea sommelier , by François Xavier Delmas and Mathieu Minet, Chêne editions
- The book of tea, by Kakuzo Okakura.

►Music programming
Barcarolle , op 26 Gabriel Fauré
Soul Searching - Carmen Souza
What binds us . Soundtrack of the film by Cédric Kaplisch, interpreted by Camelia Jordana.

Bissap juice

FOR: 1.5l of juice

Preparation 5 min. Cool: 12h

INGREDIENTS

• 100 g dried bissap (or hibiscus flower)
• 2 limes
• 80 to 100 g of sugar depending on your taste
• ½ bunch fresh mint

• INSTRUCTIONS

• Infuse the dried hibiscus flowers in 1.5l of boiling water. Let cool 2 hours at room temperature.
• When the preparation has cooled, squeeze 2 limes; then rinse and chop the fresh mint. Filter the preparation. Add the lime juice, sugar and chopped mint and mix.
• Pour everything into a carafe or bottle and put in the refrigerator for at least one night.
• Serve very fresh.

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