STUDY: “WINE CRITICS” LIVE IN A DIFFERENT WORLD
Wine Critics More Sensitive to Flavors Buyers Can’t Taste
By Sarah Frier, from Bloomberg
The flavors described so effusively by top wine critics may not be shared by consumers who buy products based on their opinions, a researcher suggests.
Winemakers and critics surveyed in Canada were found to be much better able to sense a test chemical as intensely bitter, compared with average consumers who weren’t bothered by the taste, according to a report in the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture.
The wine experts in the study experienced intense changes in taste, depending on the concentration of the chemical, as well as differences in mouth sensations, the research found.
The chemical is an indicator of oral sensitivity, the researchers wrote. The data suggest people born with a talent for identifying tiny differences in wine may have naturally gravitated to an industry where their abilities give them an edge, said John Hayes, director of the Pennsylvania State University’s sensory evaluation center.
“Wine experts are more likely to have a very exquisite, acute sense of taste that the rest of us can’t sense,” said Hayes, one of the authors of the report, in a telephone interview. “Some of that is biology.
Because consumers may not have the same tasting ability, they probably don’t benefit as much from drinking highly rated wine, Hayes said. Still, there may be a psychological lift.
“If you think the wine is supposed to be good, you’re going to enjoy it a lot,” Hayes said. “But to me the simplest rule in wine is if you like it, drink it.”
The work builds on earlier data finding similar “super tasters” among chefs and food experts, the researchers wrote.
The bitter chemical used by the researchers was selected because it’s been linked in studies to taste sensations that typically are associated with alcoholic beverages, such as the bitterness tasted in scotch and beer.
Intense Changes
The wine experts in the study experienced intense changes in taste, depending on the concentration of the chemical, as well as differences in mouth sensations, the research found.
They may be unique in their ability to appreciate the “somewhat cooler, soil-driven flavors and sexy dusty minerality” of the 2007 Domaine La Romanee pinot noir, as described onWines.com.
The wine, being discounted at $735 a bottle, “still boasts impressive breadth and fat,” according to the site.
With thousands of wineries and varieties to choose from, consumers depend on experts to help make purchase decisions for wine, which had a U.S. retail value of $30 billion in 2010.
While comments about flavors may be useless to the average consumer, people still want help identifying the best wines, Hayes said.
Dr. Pinna says:
Like everything in life, it is all “genetic.” You either have a “talent” for some skill or activity or you don’t.
Musicians can hear the subtle differences in tone and pitch; painters can see colors no one else can see; chess masters can see chess patterns three or four moves ahead of their opponents; and mathematicians see endless formulas that the average person can never comprehend.
It is all a matter of inherited talents or “genes.”
I can tell the difference between a good wine and a bad wine; but when it comes to those subtle shades of flavor, “earth tones” “fruit” “jammy” etcetera, I give up. Fortunately, I have a wife who has a much better sense of flavor and taste than mine. When I’m cooking and unsure of the flavor, I simply smile and politely say: “Can you taste this?” Then I look for the smile or the frown and the words: “It’s good!” or “It’s too salty!”
When it comes to wine, the words are: “It’s good!” “It’s really good” or “That is bad! Why did you buy it?”
In order to avoid the last negative response I, like all the other people in the world with faulty taste buds, read the Wine Spectator. If the Wine Spectator gives the wine a 90 or higher, it has to be good. The Wine Spectator hires those talented genes.
