Some refer to the smell of fruit and ripe apricots while others to horse blankets and leather, just to name a few of the more peculiar descriptions of the aroma of wine.
But, now scientists have carried out a study and found that wine buffs talk rubbish and smell the rich aroma differently “because of their genes rather than their expertise”, ‘The Daily Telegraph’ reported here.
In fact, the researchers from the Rockefeller University came to the conclusion after studying how 400 people reacted to more than 60 smells — the findings of which have been published in ‘Nature’ magazine.
The research reveals that small changes in a single gene — identified as OR7D4 — can cause a person to perceive a key ingredient of male body odour and urine as smelling like urine or, most remarkably, vanilla.
Although it has long been suspected that the sensing of body odour is genetically determined, “this study is the first to identify variations in a single gene that account for a large part of why people perceive it so differently”, the daily said.
“Shock horror! So there is scientific proof that wine lovers talk rubbish. Doesn’t everyone after a glass or two? How does one describe what scrambled eggs tastes like, or smoke smells like, without comparing them to something else? “So it is that we wine lovers might describe a wine as tasting of truffles, leather, game and rotting veg. Well, that’s what old red burgundy often resembles,” noted wine buff Jonathan Ray was quoted as saying.