Do Women make better wine critics than men?

 

Research has indicated that about 35% of women and only 15% of men are “supertasters”.

 

Firstly what is a supertaster?

 

A ’supertaster’ is the term given to someone who is particularly sensitive to different tastes, especially bitter tastes.

If you are a supertaster you’ll have a higher number of taste buds (papillae) on your tongue.

This allows you to easily distinguish between different tastes. Foods may taste more intense to you, and you may be particularly sensitive to the bitter tastes in food and drinks such as coffee, cabbage and grapefruit.

This sensitivity to bitter tastes is not just down to a high number of taste buds.

Scientists have discovered that some people carry a form of the taste bud gene that makes their taste buds more sensitive to the bitter taste of the substance 6-n-propylthiouracil (also known as PROP).

If you carry this gene, and you have a high number of taste buds on your tongue, you are likely to be a supertaster.

 

Ok, you’re a woman and a supertaster, are you a better wine critc?

 

Keep in mind that wine criticism, more than other forms, relies almost entirely on perceived — and largely unprovable — credibility. What credentials exist are either highly technical, such as winemaking, or patently self-promoting, such as the transparently trumped-up Master of Wine designation. (The name alone is a giveaway to its priestly pretensions.)

This sounds good, doesn’t it? Being a supertaster would seem an incontestable boon, like an acrobat being double-jointed. Not so fast. The problem with having a lot of taste buds is that taste sensations are intensified to the point of pain.

Supertasters, Professor Bartoshuk reports, typically dislike spicy foods, which irritate, as do fatty foods, which literally weigh upon the touch sensors in the fungiform papillae. (Supertasters also have more sensitive touch receptors in their tongues.)

 

Conclusion.

 

 

Because they have more taste buds, supertasters find certain foods bitter that normal tasters do not and thus negatively evaluate them. This might indicate that supertasters actually make poor candidates for being wine critics with respect to taste.

The paradox could be resolved by concluding that supertasters do, in fact, make good candidates for being wine critics provided that they obtain a special sort of gustatory education.

 

This resolution depends upon the separation of personal and critical taste and the assumption that critical taste is educable.

 

Woman supertasters possess delicacy of taste, but that is not sufficient to enable them to become ideal  wine critics. In order to become ideal wine critics they need to undertake a gustatory education teaching them to correctly use fourth-level Taste language. With such an education, the supertaster would fulfill the necessary and sufficient conditions for being an ideal critic.

 

So maybe the question should be, can you teach woman about wine?

 

 

Good News and Bad News for West Aussie Wine Lovers

While much of the Australian Wine Industry is in the doldrums: Excessive rainfall and low temperatures in the Hunter spoiling the red grape harvest; water shortages in the Murray Darling continuing to prove problematic: record heat making the South Australian Vintage “one to forget”  http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/08/2211454.htm: , Western Australia looks set for one of the best vintages in some years. 1994 and 1998 would be considered as 2 of the best and this year is certainly as good as those.

 

This years harvest is lighter than average mainly because of hail and heat damage but an outstanding ripening season has produced top quality red and white varieties across all growing regions. John Griffiths WA Wine Industry Association.

 

Rob Bowen, Houghton winemaker agreed the 2008 vintage was the best in many years.

Statewide the harvest is estimated at 66,000 tonne which is down from the average. Nationally, the wine grape harvest is estimated between 1.55 million and 1.65 million tonne, which is up on last year’s drought and frost affected harvest of 1.4 million tonne.

 

So what does this mean for the consumer? The Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz have been singled as stand-outs; “intense colour, expressive and richest for some time”.

Also expect some great things out of top end chardonnay from Pemberton and Margaret River.

For the bad news; with two good vintages in storage, the glut virtually gone and demand for WA fruit high, you can expect to pay 10-15% more.

Wine from somewhere rather than wines from anywhere

Wine Australia has had a program, “Regional Hero’s” in the works for a while.  The program is designed to convert us from thinking in terms of  general Australian wine, or just a grape variety, to thinking about individual regions with grape varieties attached.

The recent article in The Times has picked up on this and is further supported by reports that the average spend per bottle is up to £8.25 (from £7.24) Australian Trade Commission report.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/wine/article3740716.ece

If you are interested in finding out more about the regions, visit the official Wine Australia wine site and play the fun informative game:” Discover your regional heros”

http://www.wineaustralia.com/regionalheroes/

 

Don’t let the wine snob die!

What is a wine snob? The boorish fellow who grabs the wine list? (then orders the most expensive wine that does match the food). Maybe, but good onya mate! Somebody has to take charge. Please do not let this icon get swallowed up by our PC world.

 

Oxford Press Definition

 

snob / snäb / • n. a person with an exaggerated respect for high social position who dislikes people or activities regarded as lower-class. ∎ [with adj.]A person who believes that their tastes in a particular area are superior to those of other people: a wine snob.

 

.

• You need to have a favourite wine from some made up winery like “Snugbottoms Bend”, people will either a)Claim to know it and agree that they make a wonderful Pinot Grigio, Viognier or whatever. b)Be impressed that you know a winery they have never heard, especially when they try to look it up. 
• When someone gives you a glass of wine, swirl, sniff take a small sip and exclaim loudly “ohh that’s nice, which country is it from?” When told the country, exclaim “I’d love to own a villa there!” Thereby implying you could afford a villa wherever “there” is 
• Make sure you know the name of an obscure vinery in some hidden valley so you can bandy the name about; it’s also a good idea to know the name of the owner/winemaker too.
• Never admit to putting ice cubes in your white wine.
• White wines are OK, but real wine lovers prefer red.
• Wines not to be drunk in public. Blue Nun, Black Tower,

  Mateous Rose (although they still make a good lampshade holder),white zinfandel, any Rose, Château Cardboard and especially Asti Spumante.

• Wines to be ridiculed in public: as above. 
• Call a Shiraz a Syrah 
• Know the names of at least 10 wine writers. You can make a few up if you like, there are thousands out there.
• Grab the wine list at the restaurant and make sure you order the most expensive wine

CONNOISSEUR, n. A specialist who knows everything about something and nothing about anything else. An old wine-bibber having been smashed in a railway collision, some wine was poured on his lips to revive him. “Pauillac, 1873,” he murmured and died.

Bierce, Ambrose

–”The Devil’s Dictionary,” 1911

 

 

 

 

 

 

Show me the money!

So, it’s official: most of us, including the so called experts cannot pick a good wine from a “2 buck chuck” – it’s all a matter of price!

 

A recently released report shows that price is far more important than taste when it comes to the amount of pleasure the wine gives you.

 

http://www.decanter.com/news/252602.html

 

The study reported that drinking more expensive wine gave the drinker more pleasure – regardless of the quality. So a $10 bottled tagged at $90 was measured to give the drinker greater pleasure.

 

The report also summarised “The latest review finds even those with wine training, such as sommeliers, are only marginally likely to pick out pricier bottles as superior, say the authors.”

 

Where does that leave us?

 

Or would you rather be a cow?

We all know about the benifits of a glass or two of red wine a day. What’s Good for you

But it’s important you only drink two standard glasses of wine a day. Anymore and you risk the downsides of excessive alcohol intake: raised blood pressure, potential damage to the heart, liver, kidneys and brain. Over consumption of alcohol can also cause impotence and infertility, while during pregnancy it can damage the foetus.

“You’ve got to get the Goldilocks dose: too much is bad for you and abstinence is bad for you, whereas moderation’s good for you,” says Dr Norrie.

So should we give our precious life preserving wine to cows? And if we do, how much should we give them?

It is a reasonably well known fact that West Australian Farmers have been feeding thier prized Waygu cattle up to 1 litre of Western Australian Cabernet Merlot. Read More

But if 1 or 2 glasses a day (and what about the 3 alcohol free days per week) is our limit, how come the cows get a whacking great 1 litre per day. That’s about 9 standard drinks a day!!

It begs the question; “Would you rather be a cow?”
Buy West Australian Red Wine in Moderation
 

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