How to Use the Four
Elements of Flavour to Develop A Winemaker's Palate
...With Chemistry, Physiology, Physics and
Psychology
“I don’t know much about wine, but I know
what I like.”
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The odd thing about this comment is that if you
know what you like, then you already know something about wine.
The main difference between those who “know” about wine and
those who feel that they don’t is that those who “know” can
articulate what it is that they like. |
This article will guide you through the basic
steps in being able to articulate what you like about wine. They
will also add immeasurably to your enjoyment of wine.
There are five elements that contribute to the
overall proposition “tasting wine.” These are:
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Chemical
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Physical
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Mechanical
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Physiological, and
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Psychological.
Other aspects are:
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The size and shape of the glass
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Your own impartial ability to smell and taste
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Your own flavour preferences
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The temperature of the wine
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The ambient temperature of the room you are in
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Your physical state – whether you are tired, hungry, and/or
attentive.
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Your own preconceived notions about the wine.
The FOUR ELEMENTS of FLAVOUR
To understand these variables, use physiology to examine the
concept of taste.
Flavour, although it may have slightly differing meanings,
depending upon who is using the term, always refers to food. The
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines flavour
as:
“Complex combination of the
olfactory, gustatory and trigeminal sensations perceived during
tasting. The flavour may be influenced by tactile, thermal, painful
and/or kinaesthesic effects.”
While the senses of smell and taste are dominant, flavour
is not an experience limited to these. It is a combination of
experiences from the senses of:
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smell,
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taste,
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touch, and
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sight.
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ONE - SMELL: Acute, Ancient and Fragile
A winemaker can smell an open glass of wine on the tasting bench
as soon as he or she walks in the door.
Of the five senses, smell is the most acute, approximately 1,000
times more sensitive than the sense of taste. As a result, what is
termed flavour is influenced by approximately:
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75% smell (olfaction), and
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25% taste (gustation).
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Thus, winemakers will excuse themselves from tasting wine when
they have a cold or when their sense of smell in temporarily
impaired.
Smell and taste are the chemical senses because their
receptors are stimulated by chemical molecules. The other tasting
elements influence receptors that respond to energy from light,
pressure, or sound.
In terms of sensitivity, the nose can detect as little as one
molecule in a million, whereas the tongue can only detect one
molecule in a thousand. So by concentrating more on your sense of
smell you can heighten your enjoyment of wine.
The main skill is learning words and analogies that describe
aromas.
To smell a substance, that substance must be volatile – that is,
it must be evaporating. Also, the molecules must be hydrophobic –
that is, they must be able to be dissolved in oil, but not water.
The odour vapours must contact receptors in the nose – a pair of
olfactory membranes. These are deep inside the nose. There are
approximately 200 different types of nasal receptors. The use about
50 million olfactory neurons, each with cilia that extend into the
nasal cavity. The cilia carry the receptors that capture the scent
molecules and signal the neurons to send the scent messages to the
brain for interpretation.
The sense of smell is ancient and primal, one of the earliest
senses evolved, for locating food, warning of danger, and regulating
sexual behavior. Unique among the senses, the scent message passes
directly through the limbic system, the emotional center of the
brain, on its way to conscious identification in the cortex.
Reaction to certain smells may be instinctive;
identification of those smells requires a certain amount of
experience and training.
Fatigue and Adaptation
While smell is the most easily stimulated of the human senses, it
is also the most fragile. Most of us have experienced detecting the
aroma of cooking, maybe even from outside the house. In pursuit, we
trace it to the kitchen where it becomes stronger. After standing
there for a few minutes, however, the cooking odours may no longer
be noticeable. This fatigue of the sense of smell is part of sensory
adaptation: the self-adjustment to a constant level of stimulus in
an environment, so that the individual retains sensitivity to
changes.
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This adaptation also occurs for the sense of
sight in a darkened theater or hearing in a noisy city. Some
adaptation is short-term; recovery and return to the degree of
sensitivity prior to exposure may only take a few minutes.
Research has also demonstrated that constant environmental odour
exposure can cause adaptation that lasts for days or weeks, even
after removal of the odour source.
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is a great variation between individuals in the elements to
which they are sensitive. A person's absolute threshold
is the smallest amount of stimulus required to produce a
sensation. Once that threshold is reached, unless trained, the
individual can only recognize and unconsciously catalog the
smell as either "familiar" or "new". Scientists have proven that
the nose can detect and distinguish between thousands of
different smells, depending upon individual aptitude and
training.
Even individuals lacking the ability to smell specific odours
(anosmia) can often be induced to learn them by repeated
exposure. Very little research has been conducted to either
explain or rectify serious sensory problems of smell or taste,
which can arise from congenital defect, illness, or injury, and
may effect one of every 150 human beings.
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Aroma Theory
To date, scientists have cataloged over 17,000 different smells.
About 10,000 can be distinguished by humans, although no one knows
just how this ability works. In the early 1900s, a researcher named
Henning suggested there are really only six categories of smells,
combinations of which account for all the detectable odours and
aromas.
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Henning arrayed these categories into a
three-dimensional prismatic map whereon, his theory suggests,
all smells could be plotted to some point on one of the
surfaces. For example, it should be possible for something to
smell fruity, putrid, resinous, and burned, but
impossible to have a smell that is putrid, spicy, and
resinous. The combinations are interesting to plot and
contemplate. |
The chemical make-up of wine includes many trace elements that
contribute to the combination of smells. Some of these same elements
are also found, frequently in higher concentrations, in other
familiar foods, spices, flowers, etc. Consequently, wine smells may
often bring to mind these other familiar things, albeit with more
subtlety and much less obvious or instant recognisability. With
training, concentration, and practice, nearly anyone can learn to
dissect and describe these elements of complexity.
TWO - TASTE: Categorization and Individual Sensitivity
While there may be a vast array of aroma categories, generally only
four tastes have historically been considered:
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bitter,
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salty,
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sour, and
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sweet. |
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There really is no precise definition of "basic taste"; these
four only differentiate and describe common taste sensations. Bitter
tastes come from alkaloids, such as contained in coffee and quinine
(tonic water). Salty tastes, by far the most common in prepared
foods, come from sodium chloride (table salt), sodium nitrite
(especially in smoked meats or fish), sodium bicarbonate (especially
in baked goods, canned foods), and sodium benzoate (especially in
soft drinks and packaged beverages, jellies and preserves, margarine
and fast-food burgers). Sour tastes come from acids (citric
in oranges, grapefruit, etc., malic in apples, pears,
lactic in dairy products). Sweet comes from sugars, primarily
sucrose in the American diet, although there are many others
(fructose, glucose, lactose, etc.).
 Taste
has historically been one of the least understood sensory
mechanisms. Misinterpretations of research conducted in the late
1800s, led to "tongue maps" that suggested that the basic tastes are
sensed primarily by specific areas, such as the tip or center.
Subsequent investigation proved that taste buds on the entire
surface of the tongue can sense all of the various tastes.
Tastes are sensed by nerve receptors called buds and there
are about 9,000 of them on the average tongue. Combinations of
tastes, along with the accompanying combined aromas, account for
different flavours. Taste compounds have smaller molecules than
those of odours and, unlike odours, must be hydrophyllic,
water-soluble.
Sensitivity to specific tastes varies considerably with
individuals. It is possible in fact to be taste-blind. The test uses
a chemical called phenylthiocarbamide, which tastes extremely
bitter to some persons and quite bland to others. Some research has
suggested that there is higher alcoholism incidence among the
genetically taste-blind.
Eastern Influence
Additional theories of taste perception come into Western
consciousness from Eastern thought. Asians generally add "hot" (the
capiscum or capsaicin taste of peppers) to the four
basic tastes. At the beginning of the 1900s, Japanese scientist
Kikunae Ikeda identified this element as more complex and variable
than merely hot. He isolated one element that causes this taste in
meat, milk, mushrooms, and seaweed broth as the amino acid
glutamate and called the sensation "umami."
Rather than a specific flavour, umami is best described as a
distinctive quality or completeness of flavour. The nearest
English equivalent would be "savory" or "delicious." Oriental food
often gets umami, its "complete" flavour, by the addition of
monosodium glutamate (MSG).
The scientific journal Nature published an article in the
Spring of 2002, that American scientists Charles Zuker and Nick
Ryber have identified a taste receptor for amino acids, supporting
the idea of Umami. Wine typically contains from one to four grams of
amino acids per litre. While still controversial, there are ongoing
studies of umami and it is an emerging consideration in food and
wine circles.
THREE - FEELING: Texture, Body, Tannin, Alcohol and
Temperature
The sense of touch figures in the overall flavour impression by
conveying temperature, texture and pressure, the feeling
differences that exist between cold iced tea and hot coffee, between
plain fruit punch and carbonated soda, between filtered and
unfiltered apple juice, between smooth pudding and crunchy cookies,
or between the burn of jalapeño or the cool of menthol. These
sensations of touch, irritation, or thermal differences are called
chemesthesis and may be experienced in the eyes, mouth,
nose, or throat. Much of the touch information of flavour is
conveyed to the brain through the trigeminal nerve.
The body of a wine is felt as light or heavy, thin or
full, rich or crisp. Body is one of the most often misunderstood
components of wine. The description "full bodied" is frequently
applied to wines that are high in either alcohol or tannin or in
both, without the actual texture and weight of the wine being "full"
at all. Body should be thought of as the relative "thickness" or
viscosity of the wine.
One of the most prominent elements of wine "flavour" is
tannin, more a sensation of touch rather than taste. It is also
a significant flavour component of tea, chocolate, soy, pecans,
walnuts, and the skins and seeds of many fruits, other than grapes,
such as blueberries, dates, kiwi, peaches, persimmons, pomegranates,
raspberries and figs. Tannin leaves a puckery, astringent feeling on
the tongue, gums, and cheeks and can sometimes also taste bitter.
Wine tannins come primarily from grape skins and oak barrels and
vary in strength and character. In the mouth, tannins can feel fine,
round, and smooth or gritty, coarse, and angular. Tannins are one of
the few flavour elements in wine that cannot be smelled.
Alcohol also is mainly experienced as an irritation of the touch
sense. When the proportion is too high for the other flavour
elements, alcohol may give a "burning" sensation in the nose as well
as a "hot" feeling in the back of the throat or the roof of the
mouth.
Wine served cold gives a taste impression that is less sweet and
more acid and astringent than the same wine at a warmer temperature.
This is one reason to serve fruity wines chilled, while dry,
astringent ones are best near or just below "room" temperature.
The phenomena of fatigue and adaption discussed earlier regarding
smell are also considerations with taste. Astringency and bitterness
require up to ninety seconds recovery in order not to influence the
flavour of the next wine. This can be a very long time between
tastes. A good swallow of water or bite of bread does help. Sugar
also takes a while to fade from the tongue. Chocolate, which
combines astringency, bitterness and sweetness, has an extremely
long aftertaste, can foul the palate for wine evaluation, and is not
recommended within three hours prior to serious tasting. Cheese also
clouds the ability to judge wine; as wise old French wine merchants
say, "Achetez avec l'eau, vendez avec le fromage" (Buy with
water, sell with cheese.)
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Individual Preference and Cultural Bias
Another influence on taste besides individual physiology
and ability is individual psychology and preference.
Culture and upbringing provide sensory experiences that
certainly influence adult taste preferences. |
Americans and Australians raised in the last half of the 20th
Century typically drank milk, or increasingly soft drinks, sweet and
sometimes carbonated, as mealtime beverages. The longtime adage of
wine marketers has been that "People talk dry but drink
sweet". Each culture has a similar taste bias. Coca-Cola
employs 200 global research and development staff, two dozen of them
specialists in flavour development to pinpoint local taste
preferences and adjust their product formula to local conformity.
They have found that Germans like spicy, Mexicans like citric and
Italians want a little bitterness. These cultural flavour
preferences may also dictate wine choices to some degree.
FOUR - SEEING: Clues Only; Don't be Fooled
This idea of sight affecting flavour is not hard to grasp if one
thinks of some food which looks unappetizing, but then tastes very
good. The reverse is also true. How often is an item selected from a
cafeteria line that appears very tasty but turns out to be bland or
worse? This expectation based on appearance often
psychologically sets up our taste buds. In wine, this sight
prejudice leads us to expect that transparent and bright wines will
be good-tasting, and wines that are cloudy or dull in colour will
not. Although this does not necessarily hold, still our sense of
sight sets us up psychologically for gustatory enjoyment or
disappointment.
Colour can be an indicator of what the nose and the mouth might
expect. Clues as to the grape varietal identity and the age of wine
can be revealed by its hue and transparency or opacity. White
varietal wines may appear from very pale greenish and brightly clear
(suspect youth and bone dryness) to deep golden brownish and
approaching translucence (probably well-aged, possibly nectar-like).
Red varietals run from brickish red and nearly transparent (may be
older, mellow) to deep opaque bluish-purple (expect young, brash,
tannic). Bright pink rosé or blush wines are often youthful, while
orangey-bricky ones are usually past their point of prime
drinkability.
Although they may appear to be in a range of either red-purples
or green-yellows, wine grapes are referred to as black (noir)
or white (blanc), depending on the colour of their skins at
ripeness. Pinot Noir, Grenache and Mourvedre tend towards a garnet
or brickish tone. Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and
Barbera can make wines so inky-purple they could refill fountain
pens. The hues of the black grapes are consistent but they become
nearly transparent when made into rosé or blush-style wines.
Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc tend to be green. Semillon and
Viognier are generally more yellow. Gewürztraminer and Pinot Gris (Grigio)
can have a light tannish-grey cast if allowed to fully ripen before
made into wine. Most unnamed varietals fall in between these colour
ranges.
Sight may set up initial expectations in the other senses, or
serve as confirmation after smelling, tasting, and feeling a
wine's properties. When aromas of tomatoes, bouquet of earth, light
tannins, a texture of velvet, and flavour of dried cherries all lead
to suspicions of Pinot Noir, the garnet edge may confirm it.
METHODOLOGY: Putting it all Together
Evaluating the physiological factors and chemical properties
helps devise methodology to get the most from tasting wine. The
taster can control serving parameters to intensify the
experience and consider and maintain an awareness of elements
which are beyond control but nonetheless affect the tasting
occasion. |
First, to make sure enough vapor is present to get a strong sense
of the wine's smell, use a glass shape that can concentrate the
molecules, filled only one-third full or less to allow space for the
vapors to be contained. Tilting the glass over an opaque white
surface and observing the liquid's edge is the best way to judge hue
and clarity. Next, swirl the wine to toss some of those molecules
into the air and to increase the size of the liquid surface area
from which the molecules can escape.
Then take a big, deep sniff of the wine to reach the deep-seated
nasal receptors and cross the threshold of sensitivity. That first
impression of a wine is really important. Close the eyes and
concentrate to form an initial judgment before fatigue and
adaptation set in.
Put enough wine, one-half to a full ounce, in the mouth and slosh
it around to make sure as large an area of the tongue as possible
has a chance to judge the wine's elements. Feel the viscosity and
tannins. Allow the wine to settle in the lower jaw, letting it warm
slightly while pursing the lips to breathe in a small amount of air.
Continue sucking in air, making a slurping sound as the wine and air
mix. This volatilizes the wine and sends it to the back of the nasal
cavity, intensifying the smell and flavour experience. After
swallowing, notice which flavours and feelings are left and how well
they linger.
Tasting several wines on the same occasion can somewhat alter the
tasting procedure. Different contexts call for different techniques.
When faced, for example, in a "blind" tasting, there are a couple of
possible approaches. Whichever is comfortable and works best for the
taster is proper.
One method is to sample and evaluate each wine completely and
separately, before moving to the next one. For some people, this
gives them a complete and memorable picture of the individual wine.
A large "cocktail party" tasting event, where one glass, carried
from table to table, is used to sample many wines, dictates this
manner of tasting.
A different technique may be used at "sit-down" wine tastings
with "flights" of two or more wines. In this situation, it's
possible to smell and evaluate all of the wines, before tasting any
of them. Proceed through once, smelling each in order, then return
to those that left the weakest impression for a second chance to
coax more from them. Classify the wines, based on aromas, from
"weak" to "strong" to "defective" to set the order of tasting. It
requires discipline to delay tasting the strongest or most appealing
wine, but it provides a chance to form a more definite impression of
the lightest-smelling wines, without being overwhelmed by the
"bigger" wines. Wines that have suspected defects, such as hydrogen
sulfide (rotten egg), or TCA (corkiness), are postponed until last,
to avoid "polluting" the senses.
TERMINOLOGY for Communication and Memory
Describing specific smells and flavours of wine is not important to
the average consumer; most decide that a wine simply tastes good or
not. Critics and judges, however, need to learn and apply standards
of terminology. Consumers can enhance their tasting experience by
learning these terms in order to communicate better with their
fellow tasters, their wine merchant, and, perhaps most importantly,
to develop a memory of their likes and dislikes.
Many of the smells and flavours in wine are described in terms of
other fruits. Gas chromatography enables separation and
identification of elements in a compound, according to the
constituent's volatility. This technique has enabled chemists to
establish that there are, in fact, several odouriferous molecules
that are shared by wine and apples, pears, currants, raspberries,
oranges, or bananas. These include acetic and butyric acids, the
alcohols propanol, terpinol and hexanol, the carbonyls ethanal,
acetone and diacetyl, and the esters isoamyle acetate, ethyl
caproate, and ethyl butyrate. Different combinations and amounts of
these and other compounds give fruits their distinct aromas and
flavours and provide great variety in wine.
Until her retirement in 2003, from the University of California
at Davis, Dr. Ann Noble led wine research on smells and flavours.
She began to develop her theories on aromas specifically
recognizable in wine in the 1980s and her colleagues continue this
research today. Dr. Noble headed a project to develop an inexpensive
and easy tool to aid in learning wine flavour terminology. The Aroma
Wheel is a kind of pie-chart that lists, categorizes and groups
hundreds of smells and odours that may be present specifically in
wines. Each of these specific aromas is grouped into one of nine
major general categories: floral, fruity, vegetative, nutty, woody,
caramelized, earthy, spicy, or chemical.
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SUMMARY: Cheers! A wine palate is part
ability and part experience. The individual's preferences for
and sensitivity to smell and taste elements, along
with the memory of their taste history, combine to form
the palate.
In developing this personal wine palate, remember to consider
the temperature, the texture, and the feel,
as well as the flavours. Besides judging the wine, learn to
recognize which flavour elements help you arrive at that
judgment and use accepted terms to describe them. |
Use the swirl, sniff, and slurp method to enhance your
tasting ability. When you find yourself absent-mindedly swirling,
sniffing, and slurping your milk glass, coffee cup, or soft drink
can, you have reached the first level of expertise and commitment to
appreciating fine wine.
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