| One of the key tools in any winemaker’s repertoire, and one which every wine drinker can easily relate to, is the tasting of wine. For the winemaker it is a carefully honed skill that can detect faults, identify minute nuances and point him or her in the right direction. It is used at every step of the process to test and assess the wine’s development.
Taste and smell are inextricably linked – two of the most complicated senses possessed by humans and taking up a considerable part of our genetic code – and their importance in the world of wine cannot be overstated.
The Mechanics of Flavour
Taste and flavour are concepts which we understand through experience, and which undoubtedly contribute to our enjoyment of life on a regular basis. Each meal we prepare is seasoned to our personal taste and we experiment with exotic ingredients and new techniques to improve the way our food tastes, journeying on culinary voyages of discovery. The ability of scents and flavours to conjure up memories is uniquely powerful among the various senses, making deep impressions that can flash to life with just one familiar whiff. The perception of flavour is a complex process and in the wine industry much depends on it; it is a critical element in any purchase decision made by a wine lover and as such it is an important factor to understand.
| Although taste itself is a fairly simple concept, the implications are rather complex. The palate can only detect five individual tastes: bitter, sour, sweet, salt and umami – but this doesn’t explain the ability to differentiate thousands of individual flavours. Smell is literally the binding of an odour molecule to a neuron receptor, which carries a message to our olfactory centre which in turn relays the message to the cortex which processes it. In the human retro-nasal cavity we can detect scents from our oral cavity, and it is here that flavour is formed. These scents are processed by different parts of the brain: the frontal cortex and emotion centres, explaining to some extent the huge impact that food has on culture and society. Click here to read further. |
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