(Updates from the pages of the award-winning book, “Straddling the Abyss”)
I admit I am a novice when it comes to judging a fine wine. Where others in the wine club to which I belong can distinguish the different flavors, my taste buds remain neutral. Most sommeliers that have spoken to our club talk about the five senses when judging a wine, but only mention four. Sight helps determine the depth of a wine’s color, smell for its fragrance, touch holding the bottle and glass, and taste used to make the final judgment.
Hearing is the fifth sense left out of the discussion. Other than maybe being used in listening to the bubbles in sparkling wine, this sense has little purpose. Therefore I was intrigued when a sommelier listed hearing as the most important of the five senses during a recent presentation.
He set the stage for two scenarios that could occur on New Year’s Eve. In the first, he describes a person sitting down for dinner with a two-hundred-dollar bottle of fine French wine. The person is alone as he sips on the wine throughout the evening until the New Year is ushered in.
In the second scenario, a crowd of people gathers at an apartment to celebrate with several twelve-dollar bottles of wine. The laughter and lively conversation fill the evening leading up to midnight. Everyone is having a great time.
As the sommelier points out, it is not the price of a bottle of wine that makes the occasion, but the people involved. Sharing a bottle of wine with good friends at a party or event and “hearing” their laughter is just as important as any of the other senses, and maybe more so.