The Continuing Debate of the Subjectivity of My Palate vs. Your Palate
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
How often does this happen to you?
You’re at a dinner party and the host opens a bottle of wine. Everyone sips it and marvels at the aroma and flavor of such a fine wine. You sit there quietly thinking that Mother Nature must have had a bad hair day when this wine was produced.
Conversely, you’re at a restaurant and a dinner mate orders a bottle of wine. You sample the wine and become flush with a rush of excitement. Ah, a new experience that you will remember even if dementia creeps up on you in later life.
You look around the table and everyone else is nursing their respective glass; nary a one, not even the person who ordered the wine, is asking for more.
Are your sensory elements out of line with the rest of society? Have your senses of smell and taste been permanently affected by those massive quantities of extra spicy chicken wings you inhaled during college? Or are you the true connoisseur in the group?
It happens to me all the time.
As I’ve learned through many years of trial and error, there are no prescribed rules to follow in judging a wine’s finer merits. My perception of wine is just that, an individualized experience that differs from person to person, from palate to palate.
Why is this? What causes such a broad band of opinion when it comes to wine?
In my opinion, there are three distinct elements we bring to our individual interpretation of wine, each based solely on our personal experiences and interactions with others.
Perception. If you read a wine expert’s tasting review of a particular wine, the tendency is to accept it as the de facto essence of the wine. It is etched in our subconscious as an ultimate assessment. However, these notes are simply one person’s palate speaking.
For this reason, I disdain the concept of the wine note cards often displayed in wine shops (referred to as shelf talkers), exclaiming the opinions of some disembodied individual who presumably shares my individual preferences, but rarely does.
On another level, when we sample a particular wine – perhaps a Pinot Noir – we bring to that moment our perception of what a Pinot Noir should be, based on our cumulative stored opinions. If the wine at hand doesn’t fit that profile, is it better or worse than our perception of what it should be? We have these prejudicial interactions all the time; if we fall victim to them, we certainly will miss out on expanding our palates.
Experience. Each palate is the repository of the five senses of taste and over 10,000 senses of smell. The best way to determine the caliber of a wine is to sample it, not rely on the nuances and peculiarities of someone else’s palate. Over time our cerebral storage cells capture the subjective elements of wine and build an internal database.
Each time we sample a new wine, these data elements come surging to the forefront of our palates and our sensory neurons. They are part aesthetic, part physiological. We “remember” the citrus aromas of Sauvignon Blanc, the blackberry flavor of Malbec, the peppery aftertaste of Syrah and apply these memories to the wine at hand.
Genetics. Yes, some of us have more taste buds than others, some have more sensitive olfactory senses and some can better assimilate elements of aromas and flavors. It is a function of our DNA. Be it ethnic or evolutionary, some of us have a predisposition to the finer elements of the physiological make-up of wine.
If you’re in this elite group, capitalize on it. Use these innate skills to discern amongst the sea of mediocre wines in the marketplace. If you’re like the rest of us, follow theory B above; drink your way to an educated palate.
The most difficult question posed to me by inquiring minds is “What wine should I be drinking?” Invariably my response is “Whichever wine you enjoy.” Remember my credo: “Continuous experimentation results in instinctive behavior.”
Nick Antonaccio is a 45-year Pleasantville resident. For over 25 years, he has conducted wine tastings and lectures. Nick is a member and program director of the Wine Media Guild of wine journalists. He also offers personalized wine tastings. Nick’s credo: continuous experimenting results in instinctive behavior. You can reach him at nantonaccio@theexaminernews.com.
