It’s sweet to like sweet

WINE ... with David Bray

Sweet wine is as good as dry. Think Ch Y’quem and the great sauternes, the noble Australians and the Rutherglen masterpieces. Some of the world’s most desired and expensive wines are sweet.

But some among us don’t care at all for lesser sweeter wines. Think … well let’s not get personal. Hear instead a salutary tale.
Cranky old bugger. Me? I will accept the first two but not the last. Old because at 78 there can’t be much argument. Cranky because on the occasion I last heard the description I was indeed a touch hard to get on with.
We are at a wedding reception and if you have attended such a function in recent years you will almost surely have encountered the long hiatus between ceremony and sit-down meal.
We stand around on a pleasant enough balcony, plenty of drinks and nibbles on offer but only one glass of fizzy rose accepted because we have a fair drive home. Some entertainment below at what we are told is a school formal – youths arrive in every stretched passenger vehicle in town, a helicopter and, my heroes, two on scooters.
After some 90 minutes we take our seats and in due course are offered wine. Red or white? Start with white, thank you. Big mistake. Sweet white. Summon waiter. Why sweet? Part of the package deal.
Take it away. Red instead. Bit better, but there goes your mild-mannered reporter’s reputation. Which doesn’t really lead to the point of this piece, which is simply: It’s okay to like Sweet.
Wine-drinkers are individuals, with our own taste perceptions and preferences and I am sure we have known this for a long time. But wait, here is university research telling us the same truth. If I hadn’t already I would have learned it when I stood behind the counter trying to flog the modest products of our little vineyard. The customers soon made their preferences known and the majority of them liked it sweet.
An American consumer study released recently shows that physiology plays a major role in determining wine preferences and that White Zinfandel drinkers are often the most sensitive tasters, shattering the myth about sweet wine consumers.
The study was conducted in conjunction with the Consumer Wine Awards at Lodi, a thriving Californian wine area. Tim Hanni, Master of Wine and originator of the study, says: “We have uncovered a glaring error and misunderstandings by the wine industry that has lead to the disenfranchisement of millions of consumers and a significant loss of market share to other beverages.”
He says the wine industry owes sweet wine drinkers a huge apology. Dr Virginia Utermohlen, Associate Professor at Cornell University, and Hanni analysed the responses to nearly 1500 online questionnaires by potential judges for the Consumer Wine Awards at Lodi and claim that their work demonstrates clearly that physiology plays a major role in determining wine preferences. One of the more surprising indications is that drinkers of wines such as White Zinfandel and Liebfraumilch are often the most sensitive tasters.
According to the authors, “glaring errors in understanding by the wine industry have led to the disenfranchisement of millions of consumers and the loss of market share to other beverages”.
According to Dr Utermohlen, individual differences in taste and smell sensitivity relate to a number of different aspects of personality, personal preferences and behaviours – including wine choices.
So those of us who like moscato may see themselves as much connoisseurs as the pinot noir disciples. Well, I think so.