I have a friend who is an advanced sommelier (one level below master) so I found this chapter very interesting. Recent brain scans have shown that sommeliers don’t have an innate ability to detect the distinct characteristics of wines like many people, including myself, once believed. As it turns out, when a sommelier tastes wine, their brain initially shows enhanced activity in the regions where taste and smell inputs converge. Following their initial sip, the left hemisphere shows more activity than in novice wine drinkers. The left hemisphere is associated with analytical processes which confirms that experts’ brains work simultaneously on both sensory input and label recognition. But even their ability to recognize complex flavors and aromas comes from extensive practice and expanding their descriptive vocabulary.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
That's cool that you have a friend that is an expert at that level. Since sommeliers don't have the ability to just sharply figure out the characteristics of wine, I wonder if they would be able to assess other foods and products with a similar level of intensity. Or would different foods and products require the same level of training required to reach that expertise?
ReplyDelete