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 …

I’m ticked off. I was supposed to be at the Meeting of Wine Creators in Ronda, Spain, this past weekend, but sadly, was unable to iron out the logistics to get there. It might seem like a trivial reason, but I would have needed to take a bus from the airport, and then transfer to a second bus in order to finally arrive in Ronda. I could have made it work, but for a two day conference, it seemed like a ridiculous amount of effort and wasted time traveling. Regardless, it sounded as if it was interesting, when considering the fascinating topics discussed. Top wine makers, wine writers and experts gathered in a who’s who of the wine world to discuss the issues related to the current state of the wine trade. Taken from their site:
WineCreator, the First International Meeting of Wine Creators, sprang from the unique concept of creating a debate between wine creators from all over the world and an international panel of experts on the current
situation of wine.

This meeting was prompted by the need to discuss the globalisation in terms of quality that has already reached the wine industry. The quality of wines today is quite high, not so much because of the imitation of styles and brands, but because of the generalisation of winemaking techniques and teachings.

For the first time, WineCreator, the First International Meeting of Wine Creators, will bring together the twelve most influential wine creators, chosen by a panel of experts made up of twenty of the most internationally renowned critics. The aim is to create alternatives to the models imposed through routine or through fashions in wine by taking a closer look …