The art and science of wine tasting | Qian Janice Wang | TEDxNoVA

Quick Overview

Qian Janice Wang explores the concept of wine complexity, demonstrating through an Oxford University study that while experts perceive older Madeira wines as significantly more complex than novices, the chemical complexity in the glass does not necessarily equate to perceived complexity, suggesting that psychological factors and prior experience heavily influence sensory judgment.

Key Points: Wine complexity, according to critic Matt Kramer, is the single greatest standard for assessing wine quality, defined by the number of different things one can find in the bouquet and taste. Wang conducted two studies on Madeira wines: one focusing on chemical complexity (analyzing volatile compounds) and one on psychological complexity (how tasters perceive the wine). The Oxford study found that experts consistently rated older wines (10 and 20 years old) as significantly more chemically complex than novices did, suggesting expertise enhances chemical detection. In the dynamic temporal tasting (TCATA) experiment, novices' flavor perception trajectories changed significantly over 30 seconds, unlike the experts' trajectories, which were more consistent across time points. The experts' trajectories showed a clear developmental path, moving towards descriptors like 'bitter' and 'burnt caramel' as the wine aged, while novices' trajectories showed more fluctuation. The ultimate finding is that perceived complexity is not solely determined by the chemical composition; the taster's mind and experience are crucial factors in how complexity is constructed.

Context: Qian Janice Wang, a researcher, investigates the sensory perception of wine complexity, specifically using aged Madeira wines from the Djinnos Winery. She contrasts the widely held belief that complexity equals quality—as articulated by wine critics—with scientific findings from studies conducted at the University of Oxford, which examined both the objective chemical composition and the subjective perceptual evolution of wine flavors over time during tasting.