I was reminded earlier today of the idea of supertasters, roughly 25% of the population who have a higher density of taste buds on their tongue and are especially sensitive to bitterness as well as sweetness. Supposedly about 50% of people are normal tasters, while 25% are non-tasters, though I saw the term hypotaster used as well (less stigma attached to it).
Slate columnist Mike Steinberger was tested a few years ago and wrote a column. It turned out genetically he was a non-taster, but a PROP test indicated he might be a supertaster while he had an average number of “fungiform papillae” on his tongue. I’ll take the average of the results and say he’s a taster.
Jancis Robinson was given a PROP test, tasted bitterness, and it was assumed she is a super taster, though maybe she is a taster given that this PROP test is not 100% reliable. Parker claims to be a super taster, though I don’t know that there’s an evidence of him being tested formally. It does seem a bit dubious given his tastes for high octane wines, though from a standpoint of aromas and taste memory it’s probably not important to be a super taster. A good nose and taste memory are probably the most important tools for a critic.
Finally, I’m left with a controversial CT note writer, Rajiv. He always finds the smallest flaws in every wine. I’m left almost certain he’s a super taster for whom every flavor is amplified almost to pain threshold, especially flavors associated with oxidation.
It makes one wonder, doesn’t it? How useful is wine criticism, at least from a flavor standpoint, when taste intensity is experienced so differently by everyone. I really like cilantro, for example, but apparently some people find it tastes like soap! Conversely, I cannot understand why some people love cabbage and cauliflower when to me they have a horrible sulfrous quality.
The key in your statement was about some people loving cabbage and some not loving it. I don’t think the reason for the difference that people have in preferences is all that important. The fact that people have different preferences is probably enough to know.
That is why you personally have to find a critic you agree with and go with that person.
Greg - I don’t think the fact that someone is or isn’t a super taster is going to mean that they like high-octane wines more or less than something else.
My wife is actually a super taster and since childhood has had a lot of trouble with food. Too bad because her parents were food hounds. Anyway, we only found out because she had an inflammation of her tastebuds that most commonly affects supertasters and the ENT mentioned that she had an unusually high number of tastebuds and would be considered a supertaster if she cared about it.
So she gets nuance out of plain yogurt that I can only dream about. OTOH, I think most preferences have to do with childhood and familiarity. I’ve seen her get physically violently ill because I put the merest hint of a fairly mild Italian pepper into a dish, but for some reason, doesn’t mind a bit of horseradish. I’d probably go the other way around.
Since she grew up near wine country, she’s very happy with big and ripe cabs and zins and can’t abide lean and green wines and has no interest at all in whites, particularly those that I like from Germany, Hungary, the Loire, etc. Also objects to extreme sourness - pineapple, grapefruit, lemon, etc.
No idea if any of that means anything at all, but I’m not sure how far to take any correlation between being a super taster and one’s food preferences. As an aside, I think a critic who trumpets being a supertaster is essentially full of shit. If you turn up the volume on your stereo to deafening levels, it doesn’t mean you get more out of the music or find more nuance.
The PROP test really doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that you are a super taster or not. It is genetic. If you have the gene you will taste it. If not, you won’t. If you have the gene AND are a super taste, it will taste stronger than it may be to a genetically predisposed taster.
Contrary to what some people (and apparently Parker) think, being a super taster in the wine trade is NOT a good thing. Sure, you might be better at picking out flaws, but a lot of flaws present as aromas anyway, so it is mostly a non-issue. Most super tasters cannot appreciate wine like a normal taster might.
And as far as Parker is concerned, MEN past the age of 50 start to lose their sense of taste. WAY faster than women. Sorry guys. I’m sure that is why his tastes have been gravitating toward the over-the-top wines for the past decade or so.
Very interesting, so super tasters may actually enjoy certain high intensity flavors. A ‘simple’ wine for an average taster might be ‘complex’ for a super taster following the yogurt analogy. Meanwhile, a wine that is ‘complex’ for an average taster may turn out to be unpleasant for a super taster as the complexing flavors may seem terribly out of balance.
I guess the reason why I’d not associate big wines with super tasters is the bitterness and dark chocolate from extraction and oak. I’d think these would be overpowering. But not every big wine has these qualities, plus maybe the fruit intensity masks the bitterness, kind of like sugar in coffee hiding bitterness.
Another piece of data I noted was something like 35% of women are super tasters, while 15% of men are super tasters. Meanwhile, it seems most mature ‘great’ wine is consumed by men in their 50s if not 60s or 70s given that they probably started collecting in their 30s or 40s and the wine needed a decade or two or three to mature.
Perhaps the definition of ‘great’ wine then is very specific to sex and age. Maybe extreme ripeness, heavy oak and extraction is needed to appeal to older tasters who had below average sensitivity to begin with due to being male. I know I’m less sensitive to tannin and extraction than my girlfriend–I can only imagine where I’ll be in 20 or 30 years!
Maybe a little off topic, and you all might think I’m crazy but I think it has a lot to do with diet as well. Sugar, a big part of it.
At one time I was cooking for someone that wanted me to follow the rules of a diet called “The Body Ecology”. It was a super strict diet designed to reset your metabolism and gut to year zero. I decided to go on the diet myself so that I could understand it better and make better food.
Once I got past the first few weeks, I started to realize that I could taste everything better. A piece of lettuce would taste exquisite. A ripe tomato was practically earth moving. I decided that it was the super low sugar intake.
It was because of this that I stopped eating sweets. No desserts, snacks, not even ripe bananas or anything. Wine is literally the sweetest thing I eat or drink and I feel like I enjoy my wine and foods better because of it.
Again, sorry to go off topic but I feel like anyone can train their palate to taste more and better.
Eric is right, diet is vital to long-term taste. My best wine move ever was going all water almost 20 years ago. If I could kick coffee I might actually be able to really taste.
At a lunch that I attended in honor of the owner of a certain château that Parker obviously likes, the former opined that, although the latter is a friend of his, Parker’s taste has, indeed, taken the exact same turn as you described. The statement was made in response to a direct question about the apparent style preferences of certain popular wine reviewers.
I can’t mention who the owner is as he asked not to be put on record as having made that statement (for obvious reasons). He also said that Parker is a friend of his and they have known each other for many years. Reading Parker’s statements about the man, that seems most certainly true.
I’ve always wondered about references to supertasters. I’ve always thought that the tongue has very little to do with the wine experience (sweet, bitter, sour). The nose is king
I could be wrong, but I thought ‘supertasters’ also had an inordinate amount of taste buds that are sensitive to bitterness. Research that Tim Hanni mentioned in a class I took while at UCD pointed out that those people that, for instance, normally have their coffee with a lot of cream are bitter averse, and therefore have ‘more bitter taste buds’. In their case, a ‘bigger red with lots of tannnins’ will be very hard to drink vs. someone who normally drinks coffee black and not adverse to bitter qualities . . .
Linda, I’ll assume that some people have better noses too? My ex-wife spoke French, lived in France for a while and loved French food but put a Bordeaux or Rhone (blind) in front of her and she’d smell it, give it back and say something like “Don’t pour me that stinky French crap.” In an odd coincidence my SO, who was not a wine drinker before I corrupted her, has the same reaction (plus the same birthday as my ex!)
It make logical sense to me. However, my wife and I are both black coffee drinkers (friends liken our regular breakfast coffee to espresso), but Dianne really dislikes strong tannin character in wines. I can’t say I like heavy tannic influence, but I can sometimes sense the underlying beauty of a wine to know that IF the tannins resolve after some storage, it could result in an excellent wine. Dianne may just be an outlier - I will be interested to see other reactions to this post.
BTW, sorry I could not shake free to get together with your various events here in DC. I am determined to make one or two next year.
Far from a specific scientific poll, but I’d say 80-90% of the people I’ve come across and polled about this fall in line with what Tim proposed . . . There are, of course, going to be Outliers - that’s what makes this so much fun!
The supertaster studies were done by a former colleague of mine Linda Bartoshuk. You need to read the actual studies and decide how they relate to winetasting for yourself .
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Bitterness (as with most compounds, I would imagine) also has a genetic component. Some people have more/fewer bitterness taste receptors in their taste buds, so being a supertaster may or may not have an effect. As I stated above about the PROP test, if you are a supertaster and lack the gene/receptor for PROP you won’t taste it. Same with bitterness in general- if you have few receptors on your tastebuds, even if you have more of them, you will not be sensitive to bitterness.
And I definitely agree about diet. I rarely eat sugar so I am very sensitive to sweetness. I often find certain wines sweet whereas others may not.
BTW: To my knowledge, Parker has never said that he is a supertaster. I have seen plenty of people CALL Parker a ‘supertaster’ because they have heard the term and think it means “Really good taster”. AFAIK, he is not and has never said he is. I think it is just an internet rumor.