Tasting wine in context – your brain changes the taste
Does wine taste different in different locations and circumstances? I have long suspected that it does and we are beginning to test this hypothesis somewhat scientifically. Last June we tasted a Merlot in Ironstone’s tasting room, bought a bottle, and then tasted it outdoors during a picnic less than half an hour later. It tasted substantially different. We then took the bottle into our hotel room and it tasted different again.
This is hardly the basis for a great insight by itself, but I’ve been noticing this effect for decades and so have others. The difference now is that Katya and I are focusing on it more and testing more often. We are trying to control variables and find a somewhat better measurement system.
The results to date of ours and other research indicate that the following factors affect taste:
- Physical environment condition such as at home or at an outdoor picnic area or next to a busy highway.
- Psychological factors such as enjoying friends and mood. Recent research shows the placebo effect is incredibly strong. What the tasting room staff is telling tasters almost certainly affects the taste. Also ratings and reviews fall into this category, as does peer pressure.
- Physiological factors such as recent food consumption, wellness, and tasting experience.
Research shows that there is significant bleed-over of neural activity between the senses. They affect each other to some extent which is probably not surprising. There is a lot of ambiguity in our sensory perceptions.
There is much research now into the unconscious brain and that may be the most important part. It seems that much or more processing is done there than what we are conscious of. More ambiguity.
Study after study for centuries have shown that our senses and memory aren’t very reliable. With training and experience reliability can increase substantially. Wine experts could and probably do have a superior ability to sort out tastes. But what is the possibility that they could have trained away most human brain and sensory variances and deficiencies? I think it is probably zip.
We need to remember that once someone is committed to a position they tend to stick with it. That isn’t just stubbornness but often a sincere belief that distorts reality and alters mental processes. All of us experience it although training can help mitigate this natural human response. That means the wine expert could think they are tasting the same wine at a different time and place and getting the same results. That may not be humanly possible though.
So with all these variables just how relevant for most tasters is a county fair gold medal or a rating and review from a wine expert?
For the basics that we’ve evolved to sort out like dry, acidic, or sweet they should be relevant. When you get to the details like vanilla or a certain berry the relevance drops off quickly. Various flavors can be tasted in wine but it seems highly unlikely that most folks will taste the subtle favors in the same way and in the same proportions.
What happens if this hypothesis is true? The whole professional wine ratings and reviews concept falls apart. Those pretty wine medals hanging all over tasting rooms are bogus. Much of winery marketing collapses. Wine snobs will have to realize they have no greater ability to enjoy wine flavors than the average taster. They are just having a different experience.
So what would be the future of wine marketing and validating taste to consumers? Simple, the best approach is to have consumers rate and review and after enough data is collected a consumer would have a fair idea if they should try the wine. Thousands of tasters, tasting in hundreds of different circumstances and with different influences, will set a useful trend or bell curve.
The most important result is that the average taster will be free to enjoy wine without the burden of suspecting that some expert will point out their failures. Everyone is an expert for their tastes and circumstances. The only real authority is you. An “uneducated” taste is just as valid as an “educated” one.
Is it more fun to have an educated taste? You need to decide that.
- jim