Geeks and Novices Taste Differently

[Innkeeper]

A tidbit from Dan Berger last week.

"When a wine lover hands you a glass of wine to identify, chances are you use your brain as much as do your palate. But casual drinkers may not.

That's the word from a series of tests done at a Rome hospital testing whether there was a difference in how wine professionals and amateurs taste wine.

The study conducted by Swedish bio-physicist Gisela Hagberg showed those trained to taste wine analytically use an area of the brain reserved for rational, intellectual responses to stimuli.

All taters were told to fully concentrate on the wine they were being asked to sample, so all 14 tasters were thinking and showed activity in the amygdala, 'a part of the brain that reacts to pleasure,' said Hagberg.

In the seven sommeliers' brains, however, activity (was) seen in the frontal cortices, an area used for analytical thinking. No such activity was seen in the other seven tasters."

Anybody want to touch that one with a ten foot pole?

[Bucko]

I'll have you know that I don't use my brain for anything.... harrump!

[Thomas]

We all knew that, Bucko [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/eek.gif[/img]

IK, the first thing I tell those taking my wine class is that if they get anything out of my class, it is that I want them to learn to slow down and to think about what is going on with the smells and tastes of wines and foods.

The toughest task I have is to get people to recall tastes and smells so that they can relate those senses to the wine in front of them. Few lay-people ever really get that part of the training down.

[Bucko]

UC Davis claims that your palate does not fatigue during a tasting/judging -- your mind does.

It may be true because I know it begins to get hard to focus after working thru 150 wines in a day.

[Georgie]

Yeah, Bucko, I know, it's tough work but somebody's gotta do it.

[wondersofwine]

LOL!

[JagFarlane]

hehe hey Bucko...if ya ever feel the need to train a replacement...that job sounds right up my alley!

[JagFarlane]

Actually though, it makes sense...see the average drinker is just concentrated on the overall taste of it...whereas those of you whom like to drink it more often...can break it down into the various tastes and so forth like that..

Anyways...so the average drinker...is just thinking...is the overall taste pleasureable..thus why a lot of us whom are new to this, just describe a wine in a basic taste and whether we overall enjoyed it.

Then you have people, like yourself Bucko, or foodie...whom have been drinking wines for a long time, and like to know what the flavors are. You have to use the analytical part of your brain to breakdown the various flavors, like oak, and plums, and so forth like that.

[Thomas]

That's right Jag..., but if people were to slow down, think, maybe even savor (gasp!) what goes into their mouths we might all be the better for it, 'cept maybe McDonald's and Wendy's stock prices...

[JagFarlane]

LoL a lot of places would suffer! Not just the burger places...but alas...most just want food...oh well...such is life for them...