The Appreciation of Wine Through Our Sensory Perceptions
At my periodic wine tasting events for consumers I always emphasize that we each have individual, unique palates. Our palate influences our unique senses of taste and smell. Our palate influences our appreciation of one wine over another. Our palate segregates us into varying camps, such as red wine lovers or white wine lovers or dessert wine lovers.
But why is this?
The sensory experience we have with wine is focused and centered on two very distinct senses: our sense of taste and our sense of smell. When we savor a glass of wine it is these two senses that transmit ethereal data points to our brain cells and create impressions of the wine. One person’s perception of sweetness may be another’s perception of savory. One person’s perception of an earthy wine may be another’s perception of a barnyard characteristic.
Let’s delve into the attributes and influences of these two of our five senses.
Our sense of taste: Remember ninth grade biology? We have four components of our sense of taste: sweet, salty, sour and bitter. More recently, science has unraveled and defined a fifth sense – umami (savory) – which I never knew I had but thank laboratory research for helping me discover it in my physiological make up.
We experience these senses when we sip wine and it interacts with our tongue and the lining of our mouth. It is these interactions that send signals to our brains and thereby form impressions of a Cabernet Sauvignon or a Pinot Noir. In turn, our receptors create memory banks for future reference so that the next time we taste a wine, these cells, through the signals from our tongue and mouth, will help identify if the wine is Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir or another wine.
This would be a fine explanation of how we interact with and perceive a glass of wine, but in fact it is much more complicated.
Our sense of smell: It is with this sense that we truly experience wine. Our brain receptors, and therefore our experience with wine, food and all things aromatic, are influenced significantly greater through our sense of smell than our sense of taste. Our physiological makeup bears this out. When we experience wine, it is our nasal passages that provide the sensory perception of our encounter, much more than our sense of taste. The body of receptors and interactions through our sense of smell includes more than 10,000 components.
Therefore, our experiences with wine, and our brain’s ability to record and remember these experiences, are overwhelmingly centered in our sense of smell. From fruit characteristics such as cherries or blackberries to nature’s natural essence of ocean brine or earthy forest, we encounter everything around us primarily through our sense of smell. Without this, we would not be able to distinguish fruity wine from vegetal, or even some red wines from white ones.
These olfactory senses emanate from our nasal passages. This is why I have my wine guests go through a ritual each time they experience a wine. First, swirl the wine in the glass to open its bouquet and distinctive aromas. Next, aggressively insert your nose in the glass to absorb the aromas. Then sip the wine and swirl it in your mouth. In this way you are opening the aroma receptors in your nasal passages to enjoy the full experience of appreciating, analyzing – and remembering – the wine at hand. It is in this way that I, and my guests and students, are able to anticipate the profile of a bottle of Barolo to be earthy and voluptuous and a Chablis to have elements of ocean brine or seashells.
The next time you encounter a glass of wine repeat the above exercises. From then on, your interaction with wine will have a baseline of comparison and a finely focused approach to fully experiencing and memorizing individual wines for future reference.
Nick Antonaccio is a 40-year Pleasantville resident. For over 20 years he has conducted wine tastings and lectures. Nick is a member of the Wine Media Guild of wine writers. He also offers personalized wine tastings and wine travel services. Nick’s credo: continuous experimenting results in instinctive behavior. You can reach him at nantonaccio@theexaminernews.com or on Twitter @sharingwine.
