I know it will not be a big revelation for you to hear that the taste perception,
including tasting wine, relies on your brain. You will also accept that not all
people taste equally. Genetic factors have a profound influence on taste
perception. You will also agree, I am sure, that taste is cultural and influenced
by early experiences. Age and hormonal shifts, including mood changes can
also influence taste.
When you first go to the doctor for just a routine examination, they will ask
you questions related to the incidence of certain diseases in your family. They
will want to know if anyone in your family had cancer, blood pressure, heart
disease and so on. These questions are asked to establish your genetic
tolerance to any one of these diseases.
Genes and heredity also play an important role in the way we taste. Our genes
affect our preferences for certain foods and flavors. They can make some
foods taste better or worse to you than to others. They can also make you a
“superstar” who can have a very sensitive taste perception being able to taste
the basic tastes at threshold levels.
Let’s review the process of tasting and the way taste receptors work on our
tongue to understand how this process may be related to our genes. Over the
years I probably mentioned at least half a dozen times the categories of flavors
that we can taste with our tongue: salty, sweet, bitter, sour and umami. Taste
buds on our tongue are made of groups of taste receptor cells. These receptors
bind specific flavor molecules. Some receptors detect bitterness, while others
saltiness or sweetness. The receptor that senses the specific taste sends a
message to the brain announcing its discovery. While all this may sound very
simple and straightforward, it is rather complicated. The receptors on the cell
membrane of the taste cells are coded by specific genes. There are 43 different
bitter taste receptor genes and multiple sweet receptors.
What about the saliva that each one of us has in abundance in our mouths?
Does saliva have an effect on how we perceive tastes? Does it have unique
properties that separate us from others? The answer to both questions is yes!
In the initial phase of taste perception saliva acts as a solvent, while some of
its constituents react with the taste substances altering them. Saliva differs
from person to person, especially in its level of acidity. Since acid neutralizes
sweetness, people having saliva with a higher acidity perceive sweetness at
lower intensities than people having their saliva more neutral.
In this short article I tried to show the complexities of our olfactory system,
which I, myself, don’t fully understand. This doesn’t keep me from enjoying
wines, especially those that have some revealing and some mysterious
qualities.
Cheers,
Chaim
Spring 2023