Most Active Stories KRWG.ORG-The Region's Home Page Tue March 6,
2012 Most Of Us Just Can't Taste The Nuances In High-Priced
Wines Have you ever splurged on a highly rated bottle of
Burgundy or pinot noir, only to wonder whether a $10 or $15
bottle of red would have been just as good? The answer may
depend on your biology. A new study by researchers at Penn State
finds that when it comes to appreciating the subtleties of wine,
experts can taste things many of us can't. "What we found is
that the fundamental taste ability of an expert is different,"
says John Hayes of Penn State. So what explains this? Part of it
has to do with training and experience. But our ability to
identify nuances in wine is also influenced by physiology in our
mouths and brains. "We evaluated hundreds of wine drinkers,"
says Hayes, by having them sample/taste a chemical that measures
their reaction to bitter tastes. He found that wine experts —
people such as wine writers, winemakers and wine retailers —
were about 40 percent more sens