Attend one of my wine classes and chances are you'll spend the first half hour tuning up your senses. The objective is to sharpen our perceptions, to better identify what we're tasting and (more importantly) smelling. And to develop scent memory.
So it was with great interest and little surprise that I read last week's news about the impact that scent has on our memory.
A new study appearing in the Journal of Consumer Research determined that rather forgettable, generic products such as thread, tires and pencils become more memorable IF THE PRODUCT WAS INFUSED WITH A SCENT.
In one such test, when subjects were shown a pencil and a list of ten selling features, they could remember less than one selling feature two weeks later. But infuse that same pencil with the scent of pine, show the same list of ten features, and that average jumps almost 400% to 3.3 features remembered.
Of course, marketers are getting all giddy about the implications of how to sell you more scent-infused products. But I'm wondering if they just might prove to be the most effective study aid in the world? I mean, could I impart an aroma to every piece of anatomy and ace a Med School exam?? Or would the effect be no more than marginal if everything was infused with an artificial scent? What about those who don't care for artificial scents, who can't walk past one of those horrid and intrusive "Lush" stores without sneezing and gagging? But let me get down off my unscented soap box and back to wine...
What's This Have To Do With Wine?
Lots, actually. Ever taste a wine and think "I don't get all those things in Dave's tasting notes! Pencil shavings? Leather tobacco pouch? Forest Floor? All I smell are grapes!"
Well, one need only pay attention to their nose and palate while tasting their next hundred or so bottles of wine (not all at once) and a similar vocabulary would inevitably develop. It's all about honing the scent memory. And no, simply opening and guzzling the wine won't prove any more effective than mindlessly whacking 100 golf balls at the driving range. You'll just end up sore and crabby, with no improvement to your skills.
The key is to focus. Pay particular attention to what you're smelling and tasting. Take notes. Compare them with the tasting notes of others tasting the same wine (but if they don't agree with yours, neither ridicule their experience nor back down from your own). In short, get a little scientific.
Oh, and one sure way to remember the scent of a specific wine? Fall in love over it. When you engage all the senses AND the emotions at the same time, your memory of the wine will prove remarkable.
Cheers!
Dave the Wine Merchant
www.SidewaysWineClub.com
866-746-7293
Quote of the Day
“Observe, record, tabulate, communicate. Use your five senses. . . . Learn to see, learn to hear, learn to feel, learn to smell, and know that by practice alone you can become expert.”
~ William Osler, Canadian Physician (1849-1919)