Did you know that (at least according to a Yale neuroscientist in an NPR article) the flavour of wine engages more of our brain than any other human behavior?
Good news, huh?
According to Yale neuroscientist, Gordon Shepherd, the act of sipping wine is a complicated interplay of air and liquid, controlled by movements of the tongue, jaw, diaphragm, and throat. These processes send major flavour signals to the brain involving memory, judgement, emotion, pleasure, and pattern recognition.
Did you know there are eight muscles in the tongue?
The act of wine tasting may be intense physically, but there is also more to tasting wine than just taking a sip. You’ve probably seen people in movies stick their noses into a glass of wine and comment on the floral notes. Or when you go to a nice restaurant and the server pours you a small amount to taste and you feel like you should be doing something special to show you REALLY know what you’re tasting.
When people stick their noses into glasses, or swirl the wine around in the glass, it’s not just too look cool. The smell of wine is actually extremely important to taste – that’s called “retronasal” smell, or the kind of internal smelling that happens when the air comes in from the throat, not your nostrils. You’re basically smelling from the back of you nose. Pretty cool. (Also note, ‘front-end smelling’ is called “orthonasal” smell).
Physical factors also affect wine taste, like our breath, our saliva, and even our diets.
Basically, a lot goes into the process of being able to taste wine, and how we perceive that taste.
The more you know how to taste, and even how you can manipulate that, the realm of possibilities grows.
Yes, this is like social media. Anyone can create a profile on social media, and through trial and error learn how to best connect with their community and audience. You could also play around with Photoshop, or learn code. However, once you really know how to use these tools, you can do so much more.
Lots of us enjoy a glass of wine here and there on special occasions, or with dinner. We can even tell what we like and don’t like (that would be “value judgement”) based on our experience with wine and personal preference of flavour.
That all said, the pros know more than just ‘good’ versus ‘bad’. There’s a lot more to understanding flavour profiles, just like there’s a lot more that goes into design and content writing to best target audiences and promote brand engagement.
Y5 can help your business use digital marketing strategy to increase brand awareness using our knowledge and deeper understanding of social media than the average bear. Give Y5 a call today at 778-379-2177 to how to start growing your branding like a fine, aged wine!