Aroma and Memory Filtered Through the Epitheleum

“Whenever I smell baking bread, I think of my grandmother.” That’s what a
friend recently said to me. We had been talking about wine and aromas when the
conversation turned to the power of smells and the memories they evoke.

When aromas are inhaled, for example during the ‘sniffing’ portion of a wine
tasting, the esters, or airborne chemical compounds are filtered through the
olfactory epithelium. The epithelium is a cluster of nerve endings located in
the retro nasal passage. The nerves in the epithelium transmit the scent to the
brain. The brain then identifies the scents. The Olfactory bulb in the brain
which identifies the scent is part of the limbic system. The limbic system is
the part of the brain most closely associated with feeling and memory. This is
why smells so often trigger memories and bring up emotions more readily then our
other senses.

“Last night while watching tv with Megan, I saw an Olive Garden commercial
with the price “$8.95″ shown. The dork in me started mental calculations:
“Lessee, that’s 9, no $10 with tax, plus beverages…and tip…so basically the
four of us wouldn’t get out of there for less than $75-80….for bread, pasta
and lettuce…sure, its “endless” but the ingredients couldn’t be cheaper.”…
then a minute later I realized that I had been calculating a dinner tab for the
four of us, not 3.” This was a face book status post by an acquaintance who lost
his teenage son last year in a freak accident. His friends posted their
sympathy, but he corrected them, saying that the moment wasn’t sad but sweet to
him. I had to think about that.

So much of our daily lives are spent in an alert and focused state of mind.
But it’s in our habitual thinking, in our distracted thinking, and in our scent
memories, where we find moments when people we’ve lost, live on. With scents,
it’s almost like they are there with us physically, because we are experiencing
a physical sensation that we associate with them.

A wine with great, complex aromas is wonderful. But the best wines are those
enjoyed with great company. In those wines the memory of the wine’s aromas
become fused with the memory of the evening and the conversation. So that the
wine is no longer merely a physical manifestation of its own terroir. It becomes
a physical manifestation of our most cherished memories.

Shiraz, the Large and Small of It

Thorn-Clarke, Terra-Barossa Shiraz, 2009

I have a friend who knows a lot about wine.  She’s a certified wine specialist, she studies wine, works with wine, and has tasted many wines.  Whenever I ask her advice on a wine selection, without fail, she guides me toward the small winery wines.  This is especially true with imported wines.  Her feeling is that larger wineries, while often producing very good, consistent wines, are lacking in character.  Their wines are too consistent which makes them uninteresting.  I suppose that’s true for people who know a lot about wines.  I’m still learning about them.  I haven’t, yet, mastered what a Shiraz should taste like.  Because of this, I feel ill equipped to appreciate the nuances of a Shiraz with character.

The top wine producer in Australia is, not surprisingly, a multi-winery corporation, Foster’s Wine Estates.  They own Penfolds and Lindeman’s among others.  Penfold’s has garnered awards from professionals.  Lindeman’s is consistently solid and affordable.  Being owned by a large corporation hasn’t hurt the quality of the wines.  I think it’s fair to say, it has cemented the consistency of the wines.

Thorn-Clarke is a family owned winery in the Barossa region of Australia.  While it’s not a small winery, neither is it in the top 20 of Australian wine producers.  The Barossa region is known for its Shiraz-friendly climate.  When I tried the Thorn-Clarke, Terra-Barossa, 2009 Shiraz last night, it was easy to appreciate the wine’s earthy nose, with a beautiful, vibrant, dark cherry flavor and just a hint of kalamata olive in the back of my throat.  The black cherry flavor is typical for an Australian Shiraz.  If I had let the wine age a little longer, it would have taken on more chocolate and anise flavors that I have detected in Yellow Tail, Penfold’s, and Lindeman’s Shiraz.  Each of these wines displays the qualities of the Shiraz grape, yet each wine tastes a little different from the others.  I can’t say that the smaller winery wine is better or not as good as the big, corporate winery wine.  To me having so many different interpretations of the same grape is what makes wine interesting.

Wine and Music

I recently read the book, The Power of Music by Elena Mannes.  In this fascinating book, the author goes into great detail about how we experience music physically.  For example, different frequencies vibrate different bones throughout our bodies.  Of course it is in our brains where the bulk of the physical effects of music take place.  Different elements of music activate different areas of the brain.  We experience tempo on the parietal and frontal lobes, meter activates the basal ganglia, melody lights up the parahippocampal and cerebellar cortices.  And of course, we can’t hear the music without using the auditory cortex.  The act of listening to music creates its own symphony of activity in the brain.  No single element is more important than the other.  All must work in concert in order for our brains to experience the music.

Cupcake Red Velvet, 2009

Cupcake has come out with an unusual blend of big flavor reds.  In Red Velvet they have blended Zinfandel with Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Sirah.  No supporting characters here, each of these famous grapes can stand alone.  Together they make a powerful, yet surprisingly smooth wine.  Red Velvet is lush, earthy, and tannic with just a hit of good acidity.  It has nice red fruit and subtle spice flavors that mix well with the wine’s structure.  It’s a lovely sipping wine that holds up well with meaty Italian dishes.

Sometimes, with both wine and music, so many elements are put forth, that the thing as a whole becomes loud and confusing.  But sometimes all the elements come together beautifully and seamlessly.  While my brain or palate may be intensely stimulated by the plethera of elements, the end result is pure delight.