Grapevine: The Informed Palate: My Reality or Your Perception?
How often does this happen to you?
You’re at a dinner party and the host opens a bottle of wine. Everyone sips it and marvels at the aroma and flavor of such a fine wine. You sit there quietly thinking that Mother Nature must have had a bad hair day when this wine was produced.
Conversely, you’re at a restaurant and a dining mate orders a bottle of wine. You sample the wine and become flush with a rush of excitement. Ah, a new experience that you will remember even if dementia creeps up on you later in life. You look around the table and everyone else is nursing their respective glass; nary a one, not even the person who ordered the wine, is asking for more.
Is it you? Are your sensory elements out of line with the rest of society? Have your senses of smell and taste been permanently affected by those massive quantities of extra spicy chicken wings you inhaled during college? Or are you the true connoisseur in the group?
It happens to me all the time.
As I’ve learned through many years of trial and error, there are no universal criteria to follow when judging the finer elements of wine. My perception of wine is just that: an individualized experience that differs from person to person, from palate to palate.
Why is this? What causes such a broad band of opinion when it comes to wine?
In my opinion, there are three reasons for the distinct elements we bring to our individual interpretation of wine, each based solely on my personal experiences and interactions with others.
- Perception: If you read a wine expert’s tasting review of a particular wine, the tendency is to accept it as the de facto essence of the wine. It is etched in our subconscious as an ultimate assessment. However, these notes are simply one person’s palate speaking. For this reason, I disdain the concept of the wine note cards often displayed in wine shops, exclaiming the opinions of some disembodied individual who presumably shares my individual preferences, but rarely does.
On another level, when we sample a particular wine – perhaps a Pinot Noir – we bring to that moment our perception of what a Pinot Noir should be, based on our cumulative, stored opinions. If the wine at hand doesn’t fit that profile, is it better or worse than our perception of what it should be? We have these prejudicial interactions all the time; if we fall victim to them, we certainly will miss out on expanding our palate.
- Experience: Each palate is the repository of the four senses of taste and the 10,000 senses of smell. The best way to determine the caliber of a wine is to sample it yourself, and not rely on the nuances and peculiarities of someone else’s palate.
Over time our cerebral storage cells capture the subjective elements of wine and build an internal data bank. Each time we sample a new wine, these data elements come surging to the forefront of our palates and our sensory neurons. They are part aesthetic, part physiological: my unique cells “remember” the citrus aromas of Sauvignon Blanc and the blackberry flavors of ripe Cabernet Sauvignon, and apply these memories to the wine at hand.
- Genetics: Yes, some of us have more taste buds than others, some have more sensitive olfactory senses and some can assimilate elements of aromas and flavors better than others. It’s a function of our DNA. Be it ethnic or evolutionary, some of us just have a predisposition to the finer elements of the physiological make-up of wine. If you’re in this elite group, capitalize on it. Use these innate skills to discern amongst the sea of mediocre wines in the marketplace. If you’re like the rest of us, follow theory number two above, tasting and sampling your way to an educated palate.
The most difficult question posed to me by inquiring minds is “What wine should I try?” Invariably my response is “whichever wine appeals to your senses.”
Nick Antonaccio is a 40-year Pleasantville resident. For over 20 years he has conducted wine tastings and lectures. He also offers personalized wine tastings and wine travel services. Nick’s credo: continuous experimenting results in instinctive behavior. You can reach him at nantonaccio@theexaminernews.com or on Twitter @sharingwine.
