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Wine Tasting Tips #7--This Wine is Music to my Palate
April 26, 2018

Issue #7 - April 2018

Hello !


Recent articles in the popular and scientific press have inspired the content of this issue. I invite you to explore the influence of sounds and music on your wine tasting experience.

Two ways Music Choice can Impact Wine Tasting

Wine color or the glass shape can change your wine appreciation. What about music choice at a wine event?

This is what a research team from Oxford University in the UK decided to investigate in two studies recently published. I am sharing with you the two ways music choice can influence your wine tasting experience.

  • In the first study, they hypothesized than wine professionals were immune to distraction such as ambient music; they tested their assumption at the International Cool Climate Symposium hosted in UK in 2016.

  • In the second study, the same team used a more controlled research design and had a sensory panel assess the effect of music choice on the temporal perception of sweetness and sourness in the same wine.

    • Findings showed that music tunes can indeed alter our liking and also wine taste attributes.
    Read More

    Related articles in the media

    While sound can change the way we taste wine, it can also change the way we learn about wine. Two articles report on the importance of podcasts for Millenials to get wine insights.
    Mike Dunne reviewed a dozen of podcasts and highlighted 8 of them in this article.
    Sound is the new way to sell wine to millennials

    A new podcast appeared since Mike’s paper, called the Wine Down.
    More on this.

    New Articles published on Wine Tasting Demystified

    Understanding what, you, wine consumer, like or dislike in a particular red wine type, is a quest that consumer researchers are eager to crack.

    This new article reports on the work by Portuguese researchers Sena-Esteves and collaborators who investigated if preference for sweet red wine types varies as a function of your age, gender, wine drinking experience, or consumer personality types.

    They hoped their findings would “help winemakers in tuning up the levels of residual sugar in red wines according to each consumer target.”
    Is sweet red wine your wine type?
    Read More

    Smokey is the new aroma added to the Wine Tasting Demystified Aroma Dictionary in the Woody Category.

    Wild fires have affected several wine regions in the recent years, leading to the development of a smokey and non desirable aroma in the wines produced from these vineyards.

  • Aroma: Smokey/Smoky
  • Category: Woody
  • Type: Burnt
  • Aroma Definition: Associated will the smell of smoke generated by burning wood.
  • Origin: Wines aged in heavily toasted wood barrels can elicit smokey aromas. Smoky is however considered a taint when it originates from the grapevines exposure to wildfires, their heavy smoke passing over vineyards. Compounds imparting smoky aromas are phenolic molecules similar to trans resveratrol, but with a very low detection threshold. This means that only few micrograms per liter can ruin a wine flavor.

    • More on Smokey and Other Woody Aromas

    I added two books that picked my interest in the Tasting Resources section.

  • The glass of wine: science, technology, and Art of glassware, by J. F Shakelford and P.J. Shakelford; this is one of the first books dedicated to glass making and its influence on the wine industry<∕li>
  • Bursted Bubbles, by Robert Walters; This book promises to share the alternate history of the Champagne region and its growers<∕li>

    Check out these books and other wine tasting resources

    News from Isabelle

    It hasn't been a month since we connected. I went MIA due to a chronic elbow tendonitis that made it very painful to type on my computer keyboard. Sorry about that.
    I haven't been totally inactive though, and I am happy to share these news.

  • Innovinum LLC has been registered in the US. The company has operated since 2002 in Canada and followed me in the US where I now reside.
  • The Wine Aroma Wheel is now available on amazon.com

    • Don't forget your exclusive perks


    As a subscriber of Wine Tasting Tips, Wine Awakenings offer you a $15 CAD discount on any of their 12 aroma kits (retailing $149 CAD).


    Use the promo code IL01 when purchasing a 12 wine aroma kit online.
    If you are keen on the Master series (retailing $349 CAD and more), please contact directly Rita by e-mail to get your discount.

    Why waiting for Christmas to indulge in a very useful aroma kit or making this useful gift to a dear wine lover?



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