The Deutsche Weinakademie recently invited journalists to a very special seminar in Hamburg: the reason for that was the recent publication of the book “Sensi diVini – the wine tasting happens in the brain”, published by Dr. Benigna Mallebrein and Prof. Dr. Jürgen K. Mai. This book does not focus on the technique and art of wine tasting but explains the neurological background of taste in an easy and refreshing manner.
To taste wine correctly, you not only need a very sensible tongue, a sensitive nose and a flowery vocabulary but also a receptive and trained brain. For the first time, this was scientifically proven via magnetic spin tomography at the Fondazione Santa Lucia in Rome. It was shown that it can be learned to eat with more enjoyment and that the brain can be trained accordingly; the results are explained in an easily understandable language in this book. (*) This extraordinary publication introduces us to the secrets of enticing our senses when tasting wine and suggests what we can do to drink wine with more enjoyment.
At the beginning of the symposium, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Mai (University of Düsseldorf) explained very impressively to the numerous media representatives, how chemical signals are coded, how they are used by and decoded in the brain and how the sensory and emotional impressions are formed.
Then Prof. Dr. Ulrich Fischer (Manager of the Department of Viticulture and Enology, Dienstleistungszentrum Ländlicher Raum, Rheinland-Pfalz) gave an introduction to the wine sensory. The expert showed with practical examples how and why we are different with regards to taste perception.
The renowned 3 star chef Heinz Beck (La Pergola, Hilton, Rome) concluded the symposium and explained with his Bavarian-Italian charm how our taste neurons can be accelerated with good food and the appropriate wines. The cultural aspect certainly plays an important role in the process of trying to figure out which foods can bring the greatest taste enjoyment; taste preferences have changed over the centuries and vary from culture to culture.
A 4-course gourmet meal where the accompanying wines complemented the various tastes of the food was the practical implementation of the theory presented in the seminar earlier on.
The book is available in bookstores (ISBN:88-7283-234-9; Raetia-Verlag, Bozen, www.raetia.com/ ) or can be ordered directly at www.3beegroup.com or www.deutscheweinakademie.de.
(*) Scientific publication : NeuroImage 25 (2005), 570-578. If you are interested, we would be pleased to send you the scientific publication.
Warning: „According to OIV (Office International de la Vigne et du vin), the DWA also underlines that information concerning health must be presented in a balanced way. Even though some scientific data suggest that moderate wine consumption can have beneficial effects on human health, it is important to emphasize that excessive consumption of any alcoholic beverage has detrimental social and individual health effects.”
This information is provided by the Deutsche Weinakademie:
www.deutscheweinakademie.de
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