A magnificent Steinway & Sons demi-grand sits to the right of the bar in the salon of the Apicius restaurant, nestled in the heart of a peaceful and cool garden, not far from the Champs-Elysées, in Paris. A score of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s preludes (1873-1943) is placed on the instrument, and it is anything but a decorative element: it is at the origin of an unexpected encounter between the world of music and that of wine, from a beautiful pairing between a renowned chef, Mathieu Pacaud, and a young 29-year-old artist who has seen his career switch from one passion to another, from piano to oenology.
Valentin Cotton started playing keys at the age of 3, before enrolling at the Conservatory of Bourgoin-Jallieu (Isère) at 6, then at that of Lyon. His mother, a music teacher, “which we called before solfège”obviously encouraged him in his artistic path, as did his father, a music graduate, who defended a thesis on “the influence of art music on jazz pianists”. Solid foundations, therefore, giving no hint of an orientation towards the art of wine.
However, if the chromatic range of the keyboard is limited to black and white, far from the palette of colors offered by a tasting, the artist himself recognizes some of the similarities. Feelings, emotions. “Passion, elegance, excellence, transmission, finding meaning in what I do, in the world of music as well as in that of winedevelops Valentin Cotton. Listen to Scriabin [Alexandre, pianiste et compositeur russe, 1871-1915] reminds me of colors, and when tasting a wine, I experience identical sensations, with its tannins which are its notes. »
And to quote a Chablis 1er vintage “Vaillons” 2013 which resonated particularly well with the Sonatina by Ravel, “very chiseled, a very refined classic, neither too much nor too little”like the nectar from Chardonnay, in the north of Burgundy. “Wine, like music, is not easy to access, it takes a lot of work. There must also come an emotion that we cannot control, a sincerity in the encounter with a winegrower, a terroir, as in that with a musician and a œwork »explains the artist.
When he was younger, Valentin Cotton also practiced horse riding and show jumping. “I really hesitated between the horse and the piano, because in these two areas I liked taking risks. Jumping an obstacle or performing on stage, it gave me thrills”, says the one who gave his first concerts at the age of 15, in Slovakia. Winner of numerous international competitions – first prize in the musical competition of France in 2008, in the Teresa Llacuna competition (Valence, Drôme, 2009), or even in the international competition of Montrond-les-Bains (Loire, 2010) –, how Valentin Cotton did he manage to abandon his career as a pianist to join Mathieu Pacaud, his cellar and his stoves?
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