Your Wine Palate Learns
The other day Lahni and drove over to Napa for a cup of coffee and a Jamba Juice. Not really, we actually went over to get one of our tour cars serviced, and while we waited we went across the street and grabbed a drink.
While we were there Lahni was checking her social media connections and she asked me, “That wine by (Name withheld to protect the not so innocent) the other day was cat piss, right?” “Yes it was”, I replied. And then I launched into an explanation about what in 2008, with the fires and the heat spikes had conspired to steal that particular Sauv Blanc of all of its mid-range flavors, leaving nothing behind but the taste of stainless steel and oak on top of alcohol, an excessive amount of alcohol caused by letting the grapes hang too long hoping to repair the damage of a difficult year. It didn’t work.
By the way, anyone who doesn’t think that Stainless Steel doesn’t have a flavor hasn’t spent as much time welding and grinding as some of us have. It has a distinct, albeit subtle flavor and it varies with grade of the alloy. Probably more than you wanted to know.
When I went into the details about the quality of sunlight in 2008 and so forth, she just rolled her eyes and explained to me that this was not cocktail party conversation. And in fact, a lot of wine makers probably wouldn’t understand it completely. Now this was a surprise coming from Lahni, who is much smarter than the average mama bear, and knows a thing or two about plants and flavors.
But then I realized that my background had probably given me some insights that were a bit beyond the average wine drinker. Start with the fact that I had been trained as a ‘nose’, a perfume and fragrance designer when I was quite young. Two, as a master herbalist I am familiar with many plant flavors that most people never encounter. Three, I come from a long line of wine makers. Four, I walk the vineyards frequently as a tour guide and I experience all of those scents that contribute to the wines. Five, and finally I taste a wide variety of wines from within and outside the area.
I should probably accept the fact that I am not the wine novice that I think of myself as. Thank you Wine Educators of Napa and Sonoma, for educating me so well.
The best source of my education comes from a different source. Taste and scent connect to the limbic part of the brain, the deep parts where the automatic systems operate. That part of the brain has a tremendously good memory, and that’s why we remember flavors so well. It is also a part of the brain where emotions travel and that’s why scents and flavors are so often tied to feelings.
As we taste wines our conscious mind is trying to keep up with what our unconscious does effortlessly. If you want to learn more about the flavors of wine watch your own physical and emotional reactions. The more you taste and observe your own reactions, the greater your library of flavors becomes.
People used to ask me how do you become a Master Herbalist (And by that we mean a medicinal herbalist), and I explained that while it was important to study and read extensively on the subject, more important was to taste and use as many therapeutic herbs as possible. Your body understands the nature and actions of those herbs on a profound level, and that informs your conscious mind.
It is the same thing with wines. I taste a lot more wine than I drink. Truth be told, I don’t drink alcohol very much, but tonight for instance, at our local Tweet Up, I’m hoping to taste forty or fifty sparkling wines from around the world. But, in the course of the evening I might drink a half a glass of wine or less. Tomorrow my body will know a lot more about the breadth of sparkling wines than it does right now. And, my body won’t forget that.
Ralph & Lahni de Amicis are authors of the Amicis Winery Guides (Find them on Amazon), and owners of Amicis Tours. They are authors of over twenty books on health, design, business and travel. Their iPhone Apps, The Napa Valley Wine Tour, and The Sonoma Winery Tour are a tour guides approach to these beautiful area, complete with 1000’s of photos and insights. Their articles and products can be found on the sites http://www.amicistours.com and http://www.spaceandtime.com
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