Smoking and wine tasting

The drag coefficient

Putting aside all the health risks involved with smoking, how does this habit affect your wine tasting ability? Does a non-smoker taste better than a smoker?

 

And by the same token, would a non-smoking winemaker be better at his job than his smoking colleague? After some investigation, it appeared that this matter was more complicated than you might first think. Dr Yussuf Saloojee from the National Council against Smoking holds regular courses teaching people from all walks of life to stop smoking.

"One man who successfully completed the course recently cornered me, saying that he always considered himself somewhat of a wine connoisseur. A big collector, he prided himself on having a pretty decent palate. But after completing the course, he said he now realised he offered his guests absolute plonk at the dinner table! His sense of smell and taste heightened to the point of a complete change."

To understand what happens to a smoker's tasting ability, one has to look at the mechanics of tasting. Traditionally there are four tastes, sweet, salt, sour and bitter. Scientists are generally accepting that there is now a fifth taste called umami, a complex taste found in soy sauce, fish sauce, MSG and parmesan, which can be best described as not quite salty, not quite sour but altogether complex.

But we don't taste only sweet, sour, bitter, salt and umami when we put food in our mouths, because not all foods create the same sensation in the mouth. The taste buds are found on the surface of the tongue, along the soft palate and in the pharynx and epiglottis. Scientists are beginning to believe that it all lies in the receptors that are bundled together to make up these taste buds. From the receptors, microvilli, or tiny feelers, extend and interact with objects in the mouth, changing their polarisation. It is this chemical change which sets off nerve communication with the brain. Add to this the influence of smell and one can understand how it becomes a complicated affair.

Of course not all people will experience a change as drastic as the case described by Dr Saloojee, but the majority of people who quit smoking do note a better sense of smell and taste. This is because the nicotine and tar in cigarette smoke coats the taste buds and nasal passages, says Dr Saloojee, and deadens the taste buds as well as the receptors in the nasal epithelium, which in turn lowers their sensitivity to sensory stimuli.

"Most smokers will note a better sense of taste and smell in a matter of three or four days after quitting. Often recent quitters will remark that when they open a fridge door, they're hit with the pong of a rotten cucumber, a smell they didn't notice even two days before."

His theory on people gaining weight after they quit smoking, apart from replacing the addiction, is also that these people now, for the first time, are able to really taste their food, which might explain the extra odd kilos.

When it comes to taste, i.e. sweet, bitter, salty and sour, it seems nicotine's bitter taste might override other tastes. Some research suggests that this compound has an irritant sensation that may inhibit the taste response, similar to the way capsicum, which is responsible for burning sensation in chillies, reduces some taste sensation.

Another study by researchers of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia found that smoking alters how woman perceive sweet foods. Women who smoked were less sensitive to sweet taste than women who never smoked and needed higher concentrations of sugar to detect a sweet taste. Plus, the more years a woman smoked, the less she was able to perceive a sweet taste.

So scientifically it makes sense. This, however, brings us to a discrepancy, as some of our best winemakers also smoke like chimneys.

Like Stellenzicht's Guy Webber, who wouldn't admit to when he started smoking, in case his mother reads the article, but who does admit to puffing away at about 18 to 20 ciggies a day.

"I can't really tell you if I'm a worse taster than non-smokers, since I've never made wine as a non-smoker. Smoking is sure to have an influence, but whether quitting will make me a better winemaker remains to be seen. Sense of taste isn't the only thing that makes you a good winemaker. Besides, there are other things that impair one's sense of wine perception. Strong perfume or coffee, even mood, for instance, can also limit one's sense of taste."

"Who knows," he jokes, "if I were to quit, I might be an unhappier person, which in turn could affect my tasting ability."

Mulderbosch winemaker Mike Dobrovic agrees. "I think it isn't about whether one smokes or not, but about when one smokes. I found that if I had a cigarette within two hours before a tasting, my sense of taste wasn't sharp as everyone else's, but my palate was quite on par if I stopped smoking well before a tasting.

Dobrovic is an ex-smoker. "Everyone told me how much better everything will taste and smell once I quit, but I never really found that."

"It's not like I'm out of sync with my colleagues when we make up blends, for instance," agrees Webber. "My sense of taste is quite similar to theirs."

It could of course be true that winemakers, whether smokers or not, are better trained at tasting than the general public, hence a smoking winemaker might still be a better taster than a non-smoking layperson. At least, this is what assistant-winemaker at Allesverloren, Gilmar Boshoff, thinks. He recently quit smoking and found that his sense of smell and taste improved dramatically, but he still maintains a smoking, experienced wine taster will taste better than a non-smoker with no experience.

Groot Constantia winemaker Boela Gerber, himself a social smoker, relates an interesting story. About a decade ago, he was driving through the Western Cape with British wine writer James Sealy, here to gather material for a book he was writing.

"As we turned onto the N7 in the direction of the Cederberg, the old guy lit his first cigarette. I was astonished, until I understood his point of view. He said his whole frame of reference with wine was formed as a smoker. If he were to quit, he'd have to start from scratch, and since he was about 60 years old at the time, perhaps it wasn't a good idea!"

"Maybe I'd wine more prizes if I didn't smoke," muses Webber. "But then again, maybe I'd win less."

In conclusion, then, most experts agree that smoking can deaden the taste buds and sense of smell but a long-time smoker might have trouble re-calibrating, so to speak. "Maybe I'd win more prizes if I didn't smoke," muses Webber. "But then again, maybe I'd wine less." Obviously giving up smoking means better health overall, and this should probably be the main motivation for stubbing out.