Welcome to the Weekly Wine Quiz!
This week, we’re finishing off the series of questions related to the research cited in Master of Wine Tim Hanni’s new book, Why You Like The Wines You Like (full disclosure: I received a review copy, and I am mentioned favorably therein). Hopefully these questions have tilted your view of some of the wine world’s long-standing (but potentially false!) prejudices in terms of how we view how we taste.
Hard-Wired Wine Brains?
True or False: People who taste wines often, such as sommeliers, may actually re-wire their brains to perceive wines differently from less frequent tasters?
Cheers – and good luck!
Welcome to the Weekly Wine Quiz!
This week, we’re continuing the theme of questions relating to research cited in iconoclastic Master of Wine Tim Hanni’s new book, Why You Like The Wines You Like (full disclosure: I received a review copy, and I am mentioned favorably in the book, which in my mind merely signifies Hanni’s excellent taste in wine blogs… ok, whatever)…
Not Your (Vino)Type?
Master of Wine Tim Hanni has identified how many “Vinotypes” – or general types of wine tasters – in his research on how people perceive wine tastes?
A. Two
B. Four
C. Ten
D. Fifteen
Cheers – and good luck!
Welcome back (after a brief technical-issues-induced hiatus) to the Weekly Wine Quiz!
This week, I’m kicking off some questions related to the research cited in Master of Wine Tim Hanni’s new book, Why You Like The Wines You Like (full disclosure: I received a review copy, and I am mentioned favorably in the book – though I didn’t know about that mention until after I’d read it). Get ready for some iconoclastic, potentially mind-blowing shiz about how your brain and taste bids work when it comes to tasting wine!
Taste Buds And Undies
True or False; how – or if! – you wear underwear may be an insight into your personal wine drinking preferences?
Cheers – and good luck!
I don’t mean here that if you lick a wine expert (something I do not recommend, unless you happen to be Heidi Klum and the wine expert you plan on tasting is me) they taste like chocolate-covered hazelnut while you taste like a dog coming out of the rain.
I mean, are wine experts hard-wired to taste wine in a fundamentally different way than you are, physiologically?
Sound crazy? Well, crazy or not, that’s the conclusion suggested by results published in a recent issue of the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture, from a study performed by John Hayes (assistant professor of food science) and others at (WE ARE!) Penn State. Even NPR jumped in on this action despite the study results not having been repeated yet (see “Most Of Us Just Can’t Taste The Nuances In High-Priced Wines” – not that they’d stoop to using an incendiary title that insinuates the conclusions as unalterable scientific fact or anything gimmicky like that…).
The coverage of the study at PSU.edu is pretty sparse, and open to some rather gaping critical holes, but assuming the results hold up to further scientific scrutiny they will bolster the controversial position taken by Master of Wine Tim Hanni (and others) that individually we perceive wines differently based on a number of factors, some of them physical.
To the tape, quoting Mr. Hayes (emphasis mine):
“While learning plays a role in their expertise and other factors matter, such as how they communicate their thoughts and opinions on wines, some wine experts may have an innate advantage in learning to discern small differences in wine.”
The most interesting thing about this study? For my money, it’s the further implication that reviews from wine experts are actually even less helpful to the general public than previously thought…
Read the rest of this stuff »
