Wine Ratings May Be Meaningless for Most People

March 7th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

TUESDAY, March 6 (HealthDay News) — When it comes to wine, a new
study suggests that the ratings and reviews of experts may be lost on many
consumers.

The professionals seem to have a much more sensitive sense of taste
than most people, researchers from Penn State University explained. As a
result, wine experts are able to tell the difference in a wide range of
flavors that other people just can’t taste.

“What we found is that the fundamental taste ability of an expert is
different,” John Hayes, an assistant professor of food science and
director of Penn State’s sensory evaluation center, said in a university
news release. “And, if an expert’s ability to taste is different from the
rest of us, should we be listening to their recommendations?”

For the study, the researchers asked 330 people who attended
wine-tasting events in Ontario to sample an odorless chemical, called
propylthiouracil, PROB or probe, which used to measure reactions to bitter
tastes. People with an extra sensitive sense of taste will find this
chemical very bitter, the study authors noted. Those with a normal sense
of taste, however, will find the chemical only slightly bitter or
tasteless.

“Just like people can be color blind, they can also be taste blind,”
Hayes explained.

After using a short questionnaire to distinguish the wine experts from
the wine consumers, the investigators found that wine experts were much
more likely to find PROB bitter than non-experts.

“Statistically, the two groups were very different in how they tasted
our bitter probe compound,” said Hayes.

The study, published in the March issue of the American Journal of
Enology and Viticulture, suggested that expert recommendations may be
based on tastes that are too subtle for the average person to notice, such
as grapefruit, grassy notes or the balance of sugar and acid.

Experience may have something to do with it, but the authors pointed
out that previous research has shown that biological factors may explain
the very sensitive taste of experts.

“It’s not just learning,” concluded Hayes. “Experts also appear to
differ at a biological level.”

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about wine and heart health.