During the São Paulo event I had a few short exchanges with Pierre Overnoy, two of which are paraphrased here for your eavesdropping pleasure.
Snippet one
O: I have a remaining bottle of your 93 Ploussard and if we (meaning the event staff) go to dinner tonight, I’d like to bring it and open it for you.
P (eyes opening wide): But wouldn’t it be better if you kept it and opened it with your friends?
O: Thank you, but there is something about it which I would like to ask you about. This is the sixth of six bottles, and in all of the others there was beautiful fruit underneath, but also was a top layer of something that I’d like to identify. Maybe it is just brett.
P: (looking curious) Really? Perhaps I know what it is: "autolyse de lévures" (yeast autolysis?). [He then goes on to describe what this is, but I cannot keep up with the technicals in French). But if you decant it for a few hours, it will go away.
O: Alas, I decanted all of them, and it didn’t go away. That’s why I’d like to bring it tonight, to try and understand what happened.
P: (with a shrug) Who knows, there are some 40,000 chemical interactions in wine, so it is impossible really to know what goes on.
(I ended up not going to the dinner because I was exhausted and it happened after 11, but the sprightly 77 year old went and by all accounts had a ball)
Snippet two (after tasting the Ouillé 2003 and Ouillé 2004)
O: So, how come this tastes oxidative when it’s ouillé?
P: Because it keeps getting topped up for five years, so it ends up getting exposed to oxygen.
O: But there’s no voile, right?
P: No, it’s ouillé!
O: Yes, I understand, I just find it interesting that a voile is not necessary for there to be a pleasing oxidative flavor.
P: (grudgingly) Yes.
O: Do you believe there is a difference between oxidized and oxidative?
P: Yes, for sure.
O: Are they different molecules, some pleasing, like Sotolon, others not?
P: Who knows, there are some 40,000 chemical interactions in wine, so it is impossible really to know what goes on.