TALES OF THE VINE

You cannot taste if you cannot smell; the two are linked together and its one reason why our appetite is so dull when we suffer from a bad cold and cannot taste. Smell is also a very powerful memory trigger. I once drove through the smoke of a sugar cane farmer’s fire and the smoky smell instantly transported my mind back to my tenth birthday party at the beach in California. Long forgotten memories including the kind of cake I got and even the clothes people were wearing vividly returned with just one whiff of the smell of the smoke.

So after tasting with the eyes and nose a taster then takes a sip of the wine, but not too much as they don’t want to waste the wine on the stomach with big gulps like a schoolboy with a 7-11 slurpy. They sip just enough for the tongue and nose then move the wine around in the mouth to note its texture, weight and flavor. A good taster trusts their sense of taste; they don’t try to think too much; just relax and let the mind get into the wine. Experienced tasters will even chew and move the wine around in their mouth to get at all the chemical constituents possessing flavor to contact the taste buds. The more they move and contact the stronger the mind registers the flavor and the more the brain interprets flavor intensity. Holding a wine perfectly still in the mouth makes it impossible to taste. Try it if you don’t believe me.

OK, so what happens when we taste flavors for which we have no associated memory? That is to say, something we have never tasted before? Everyone new to Thailand who experiences the taste of durian for the first time is well acquainted with tasting the unfamiliar. Depending on our personality we may either feel fear and apprehension or the exhilaration of undertaking a new experience. People who sell wine are keenly aware of how taste can trigger these kinds of contrasting emotions and a good wine salesman will recommend wines that, based on their appraisal of the personality and life experience of the customer, will most likely trigger positive emotions that lead to increased intent to purchase. The first time I was in Vietnam I was having dinner with some locals and I was raving on about the soup we were eating, especially the meat. Then I was informed the meat was not beef, but dog. I was enjoying a fantastic meal until I got that little bit of cultural indicator and suddenly my mind’s civilizing reference overrode my narrow sense of adventure and I choked back my awkwardness so as not to share it with everyone on the table.

The key point to remember is that the first step to getting more enjoyment out of wine is to recognize there is no taste in wine, only in your mind. Train our mind; just like music, sport and math, the more we train the better we become. The trick with wine is to that there are no visual clues to guide us in finding nuance so we must go looking within ourselves. A healthy body and undistracted mind are all we need so don’t bother tasting expensive wine if you are worn out by the world on a certain day, or if you are preoccupied with your mia noi or mounting bills or whatever. Tune your mind into what you taste and your perception of the wine’s many flavors will amazingly start to sprout up like tailor shops around a new hotel.

And don’t worry if some wine maharishi says they can taste Bing cherry, wilted rose petal and hints of burlap smoke in the wine that you can only get ‘wine’ out of. Keep practicing. Make a mental note of the flavors you recognize and one by one, like colors on an artists palate, and you will accumulate a reference of taste sensations that will grow along with your confidence and ability, enhancing the pleasure of the table and bringing back memories and emotions, whether they be fond ones of birthdays by the sea or better left forgotten memories of mans’ best friend as the special of the day.