Toothpaste, perfume, aftershave, blue cheese and Wine? 

It’s Friday evening, the end of a long and stressful week.  But you’re a mover shaker. You thrive on stress.  You’re successful and have reached the stage where you allow yourself some minor luxuries.  And you’ve learned to appreciate the better things in life.

Tonight you and your wife are going out to dinner!  You shower, shave, put on some deodorant, brush your teeth, maybe even rinse with mouthwash.  As a final touch you splash a few drops of aftershave on your cheeks.  Your wife goes through a similar routine, adding a touch of makeup and perfume….

You get into your three month old Mercedes.  The leather still shines, but somehow that new car smell is fading.  “Time for a trade-in.” You tease to yourself, but of course this would be silly!

The restaurant where you will be meeting another couple, is 20 minutes away. 

As you enter, the festive mood in the room, the buzz of many conversations and the wafts of freshly cooked foods instantly boost your spirits and start you salivating.  As you meet up with your friends there is instant rapport and camaraderie.

Your wife and guests study the food menu and you the wine list.   Everybody  make their choices carefully and momentarily the waiter is back with a white and a red wine, both pricy but with exceptional pedigrees, crafted with care and lovingly preserved by all who touched it, up to this point.  You sample the red and your wife the white wine.

You accept the wines but you are secretly a little disappointed.  The wine’s nose is very shy, not nearly as aromatic as you expected.  On the palate the wine tastes hard, almost course.  You sample some of the white wine in your wife’s glass, but the wine’s aroma is overshadowed by a whiff of lipstick, and the wine tastes tart.  She tries your red, but the aftershave from your hand had transferred to the glass.

Amazingly however, as the meal progresses, both wines open up and soften.  Unfortunately, by now you are simply sipping repeatedly without really taking much notice of the finer qualities of these carefully made and chosen, expensive wines.

You know what I’m getting at, don’t you?   Perfume, toothpaste, aftershave, lipstick etc, not to mention cigarette smoke, can easily be overdone and mask the enjoyment of any wine. 

Before criticizing a wine, take note of what passed your lips before.

Toothpaste makes all wine taste tart and hard.

Salty foods like biltong, make wine taste metallic to me.

Sweet foods make the acid in wine stand out and appear tart.

Certain foods change the taste of wine, seldom for the better. Asparagus, artichokes, chocolate mousse, orange juice are examples.  Others totally dominate. Like blue cheese, stilton, etc.   Surprisingly I find olives inoffensive.

The smellies we surround ourselves with, like perfume, deodorant, aftershave etc. are not so much your own enemy but affect other people’s senses. 

Our brain and our sense of smell has and interesting filter interaction  The brain soon filters out a constantly present odour, so that we only perceive what is new.  Your perception of your own perfume or aftershave (or B.O.) for instance fades very quickly so that you can sense all other aromas very quickly.

At a subconscious level most people have a very good sense of smell which is a very powerful influencer of like and dislike, especially since it is often sub conscious!

Just think how you can instantly be attracted or put off by what you smell.

So does that mean we should shun cheese and wine parties, stop brushing our teeth and shun expensive pheromones, ultimately become celibate, just in order to enjoy wine?   I will and should be shot for suggesting something like this!

There is an answer.

I like cheese and wine parties.  I love all sort of cheeses and wine is my passion.  I just won’t be scoring the wines too seriously at a function like this.

The time and place to be a purist is if you want to assess wine along with other people in a group, like in a tasting session or competition.  This is the time to be careful.  Come ‘clean’; no perfume, deodorant, cigarette smoke, aromatic foods etc. 

But in a social setting, who wants to be wine snob?  Please bring on the Chanel, Opium, etc.

However make sure the glasses are clean…no soap residue and be careful of rancid cloths, old wooden cupboards etc. which can all leave their musty smells on an otherwise sparkling wine glass.

If your partner’s smells tend to obscure the wine aromas, just don’t use his or her glass.  Dirty another one!

After cleaning your teeth, eat a biscuit or a slice of bread.  Hot beverages like tea or coffee are great palate cleaners to neutralize the taste of toothpaste.

Food and wine do go together and can indeed be chosen wisely (or not).

Want to receive Henk’s wine tips regularly? 
Send a note to Henk@bluecrane.co.za with “Enrol me on Wine Tips” in the subject line.