Questions on Chemistry and the Flavor of Wine

RE: Questions on Chemistry and the Flavor of Wine

Rakesh Shetty — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 07:04:14 GMT

Enjoyed reading this article.....Thank you Mr Goode

RE: Questions on Chemistry and the Flavor of Wine

Patrick Miner — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 05:36:43 GMT

Thanks for the great read! I agree that assuming a high degree of commonality is probably the only practical way to teach. So maybe the best "calibration test" is to taste wine with different groups of people and learn to communicate effectively about our experience with a wine. Surely it can only help us be better at understanding and meeting our guests' needs.

On a side note, I wonder how concerned anyone should be with how stressful learning to blind taste can be for a student. After a few minutes of reflection, it seems to me that most of the worthwhile and rewarding skills I have learned have started out as being very stressful in the early stages. Often times these experiences can open doors to other valuable skills like humility, perseverance, and compassion.

RE: Questions on Chemistry and the Flavor of Wine

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 14:03:15 GMT

Great Article. To add to Geoff and Jamie's points, perhaps there can be a palate calibration test at the beginning of the educational process to at least help identify who is more sensitive or less sensitive to an aroma or flavor component. I know it was very confusing for me as I am overly sensitive to acid and much less sensitive to tannin. And my teacher was if anything a little bit the opposite, overly sensitive to tannin and less so to acid. As a result, I did not initially do well in my blind taste tests. Once we each know our strengths and weaknesses, we can work on improving our tasting skills.

RE: Questions on Chemistry and the Flavor of Wine

Jamie Goode — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 08:00:49 GMT

Thanks all for the positive comments.

Geoff, your perspective is an important one. For education purposes, I reckon it is important to recognize individual differences - and their sources - but from then on, it makes it complicated to work unless we assume a high degree of commonality - as you point out. I suppose it is about holding these perspectives in tension. But a failure to recognize that we might be living in different worlds (to an extent, of course) may make learning a more stressful experience for students who don't seem to 'get it'.

RE: Questions on Chemistry and the Flavor of Wine

Justin Amick — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:24:13 GMT

Awesome stuff but agree with Geoff's perspective as well. Interesting nonetheless

RE: Questions on Chemistry and the Flavor of Wine

Admin — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 04:10:48 GMT

Great read. While it is certainly true that we all perceive things in our own unique way - it would be impossible to prove otherwise - I personally always make the assumption that we are all basically tasting the same things. In order to effectively teach, a certain amount of standardization is necessary. Whether it is art, music, or wine; collective subjective experience leads us to a point of intersubjective verification. Put less archaically, we can all agree that Syrah tastes peppery without knowing the way each person experiences that flavor.

I am not arguing that your article ignores this point in any way, but just to reinforce my opinion that the best way to teach the art of wine tasting is by assuming a high degree of commonality and stressing the art of reasoning over subjective gut instincts.

RE: Questions on Chemistry and the Flavor of Wine

Nichole Dishman — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 07:26:28 GMT

Awesome. Thank you for the follow up Jamie.

RE: Questions on Chemistry and the Flavor of Wine

Christopher Gaither — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 05:31:08 GMT

Great info! Thank you!

RE: Questions on Chemistry and the Flavor of Wine

Jacob Gragg — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 04:19:13 GMT

Great Stuff, Thanks a ton!

RE: Questions on Chemistry and the Flavor of Wine

Ed Hodson — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:53:27 GMT

Immensely helpful and instructive. Thank you so much!

RE: Questions on Chemistry and the Flavor of Wine

Augie Kersting — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:58:01 GMT

This is one of the best things I've read in a while.

RE: Questions on Chemistry and the Flavor of Wine

Eric Crane — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:41:42 GMT

This is fantastic! Thank you.