“Trust Your Own Palate”
March 7th, 2007 by Annette
Here’s an article of interest about Mary Ewing-Mulligan, the U.S.’s first “Master’s of Wine” honoree, and how she discusses the (novel) concept of trusting one’s own taste or palate. In this article, she encourages people to try new wines and not stick with just the four top varietals (Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir or Merlot), and to try wines from various regions as well. She says “Just remember, it is your mouth and only you know what tastes good to you.”
Having been in the wine industry long enough [to know better], ahem, I have had the opportunity to taste wines with thousands of people, and here’s one general thing I’ve noticed over the years: people can get a little apprehensive and all hung-up about wine — they are unsure of their ability to “taste” it — “taste” being the ability to name the flavors and aromas that one notices in a wine. People often want to know what I taste because I am the “professional”, ie I have the ability to “taste” and they don’t.  They seem to think that wine professionals are “super-tasters and -smellers” and the rest of the population is not as blessed. I think all of that is just hogwash.
Here are some definitions for you: hypergeusia is an enhanced ability to taste; hyperosphrenis is an acute sense of smell. I’ve never met a person working in a winery who is hypergeusic or hyperosphrenic. If winemakers had either of these conditions, they wouldn’t be winemakers because they couldn’t deal with all the smells in a winery. At a given time a winery can smell like mold, rotten eggs, nail polish remover, sulfites.  Objectionable smells and (sometimes) flavors happen. It’s life in a small, artisan winery or Gallo [RIP Ernest], or any of “Constellation’s” galaxies, and I can guarantee you that anyone with a hyper-sense of smell or taste would not be able to deal with it. So if that’s the case, then where does that leave winemakers? Winemakers — at least those I know — are pretty normal people with a passion for wine that has led them to taste more wine than most people. The art of tasting wine simply comes with practice and exercise and a little study. It is a continuum — once one walks the path of developing the senses, they will disover new vistas, and after that newer still. Sappy, but true. It takes practice to connect a smell or flavor with a name and then recall it. It takes practice to single out aromas in a wine. And like anything else, as one gets better at noticing the details, more details come along to be noticed…..
There you have it — my proclamation on the subject. [You read it here first]. If you really want to develop your palate — get to work! How hard can it be? And in the meantime: trust in your own palate, drink what you like, and have fun.Â
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- 2 Comments
March 14, 2007 at 10:50 pm, wine blog said:
A very good article and a stance in which I am very much in agreance. Far to many people don’t trust their own palate because of the fear of some wine snob telling him or her that they are wrong. Like the other day at a staff wine dinner I attended, we were tasting an Aglianico and I just happend to be impressed with the up front fruit of the wine instead of the “Italian Terroir” effect that I see with lots of wines made from this variety. I stated my thoughts and a fellow employee said: “Really”?? in a questionable tone as to express his obvious opposition. I withheld my thoughts at the time only to realize that the only opinion that was valid anyways was my own.
March 15, 2007 at 8:23 am, annette said:
Yep — you wrote “I withheld my thoughts at the time only to realize that the only opinion that was valid anyways was my own.” You hit the head of the nail right there. If more folks took this idea and ran with it, the industry wouldn’t be so shackled by wine criticism. Thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts. Annette