I just finished listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Science Friday, which aired a program on the Science of Smell. Psychologist and smell scientist, Avery Gilbert, who recently published What the Nose Knows: The Science of Scent in Everyday Life came on the show as the guest speaker, talking about the various ways that we as humans interpret smells/orders/aromas. And while they only touched on wine, he did raise some ideas that really made me think about wine judging.

Any hardcore wine lover knows that the “blind tasting” is the great equalizer, but how accurate is it really? I once asked the famous wine taster and Spanish wine critic, Jose Peñín, if he did his tastings blind, and his response was “Never!”. For him, wine was a multi-sensory experience. He felt that because there are a multiplicity of characteristics in a wine which can directly affect the flavor, to eliminate any of them, would be a disservice to both himself and the consumer. So if the label is effecting the flavor of the wine due to its pictures of raspberries, why would you taste it blind? If the consumer will be effected by the label/price/color, shouldn’t the wine be judged in the way it will be consumed instead of a sterile setting that no consumer will choose to replicate.

A few points that jumped out at me from this program were that:

There is no scientific definition, or test, as of yet, for a “super smeller”, or individual who is better than others at sensing odors. People can train themselves to recognize and identify smells, but there is no definition, or empirical test, that definitively concludes that some …

It’s Friday, and all of us are dreaming of the weekend, of barbecues, of outdoor picnics with friends and family, and of simply relaxing in a hammock with a glass of bubbly rose in one hand and a great book in the other. So rather than bog you down with heady wine content, we thought we’d give you a handful of links that we thought were either controversial or entertaining:

Hilarious Map of the World: The Onion never fails to amuse me, but rarely have I stopped to actually dig deep into the site to see what other entertaining treasures it holds. If you have an hour to spare, I highly suggest you waste it exploring their “Our Dumb World: An Atlas of Planet Earth“, where you’ll find a few fun and interesting wine “facts”.

Impossible Food Pairings!: This one is inspired by the fun posts over at DrVino. Let’s just say that I wasn’t astounded to read that prison food is bad. Part of me assumes that it would be bad or else what’s the point of being in prison. But what if the food is so disgusting that you can’t even stomach it? Slate Magazine recently published an article on a “food substance” called, Nutraloaf, which is “prescribed for inmates who have misbehaved in various ways—usually by proving untrustworthy with their utensils. The loaf provides a full day’s nutrients, and it’s finger food—no fork necessary.” Evidently, this stuff is so unpalatable that state prisoners are complaining that their due process has been violated, and/or that it violates the Eighth Amendment as cruel and unusual punishment. No matter how you approach it, we curious if we can’t make this monstrosity more …

Today we are proud to announce another winery who will no longer be covered here at Catavino. Back in March, Carrie Jorgensen, one of the owners of Cortes de Cima, approached Catavino to assist them in creating a blog. Naturally, we were interested, as we like to help all wineries enter into this social arena; but beyond that, we were excited to be able to work with a client who in Portugal is known for its rebellious nature and tendency to stir things up a bit. Not to mention, that they are probably one of the top rated wineries in Portugal as a whole. Clearly, we were both honored and humbled to be of service.

Ryan first tasted their wines in January of 2007 when he was at a meeting in Lisbon. He knew very little about them, though he did like the wines. Big and bold, these are modern reds, but the nice thing is that they have a polished veneer of Portuguese about them. Cortes de Cima is the winery who first introduced the Syrah grape to the region of the Alentejo, going against the Portuguese wine law that forbid its planting. However, Cortes de Cima recognized the region and climate as highly suitable for this noble grape. Granted, we are firm believers of preserving and defending native varietals above foreign invaders, but in this case, we agree with them. The Alentejo region is down right hot. Actually that is an understatement. It’s effing, hot-damn, fry an egg on the sidewalk hot. Summer temps are normally well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit a Syrah thrives in this heat. But this is not to say that Cortes de Cima has turned their back on tradition or the region as a whole. They …

In only two months time, we will be co-hosting the first European Wine Blogger Conference in La Rioja, Spain, followed up in October by the American Wine Blogger’s Conference. So far, the responses and organization of both events have been exceptional. Both bloggers and wineries alike have shared their interest in gaining a better handle on how to benefit from this new medium of communication, but what about the reader? While bloggers across the planet are debating the merits of rating wine, how formatting and crafting content for a blog is different from print media, and ways to approach advertising so that bloggers may gain for their efforts, it dawned on us that our readers may feel left out and a little lost.

Therefore, we were struck with the one million dollar question: Does the EWBC matter to our (Catavino) readers, and why should they care? Additionally, Will getting European Bloggers together for a conference make any difference?

So we thought we’d give our co-host of the EWBC, Robert McIntosh, a chance to get some thoughts off his chest as they relate to his perspective as not only a reader, but an active voice in the wine blogging community.

Thanks Robert for your thoughts, and if our readers have any additional comments or questions to add, we would really appreciate your two cents!

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of wine blogs out there, and every post and every comment is part of a wider Wine Conversation that affects the wine industry to some extent.

Picture a vast party, where everyone is either talking about wine or listening. Bigger groups surround the “top blogs”, the “A list” celebrities that are on all wine lovers’ feed readers, but there are …

I sometimes like to believe that my father is a master pyromaniac in the most docile sense of the word. The week before Independence Day, my brother and I would pile into the back of my father’s car and go for an hour and half car ride north to Wisconsin, where it is legal to buy firecrackers, but just not use them. I remember these times fondly, walking into makeshift tents set up alongside the highway lined with dozens of cardboard boxes overflowing with clown colored tubes with names like Bottle Rockets and Dragon Twisters. My dad would always break the bank that day, and like a kid in a candy store, he couldn’t say no to things that light up the sky and go BOOM!

But our revelry as a family lasted only one day of the year, while here in Catalunya, the Revetlla de Sant Joan, complete with enormous bonfires and imaginary beings, is characterized by a week long celebration of explosions. For approximately seven days, you hear nothing but the constant sound of warfare, until the night of June 23rd, when children, grandparents and people of all races and religions gather together to go absolutely flippin’ insane. Imagine walking through your local park, and literally having firecrackers come at you from every direction. Five year olds chucking small firecrackers at your feet, grandma lighting Roman Candles at a 45 degree angle, teenagers igniting bottle rockets directly at their buddies, smoke everywhere, and you, in the middle of it all, praying that you can just get to the other side of the 200 meter park without having your eye taken out.

Where does this complete chaos stem from? La Nit de Sant Joan, St …