BETRAYAL OF YOUR SENSES

Human being is very easy to manipulate. Don’t take it personally, it is something that happens to all of us. Happens in all aspects of life and at any age, and the wine, it is only one more facet of our reality.

For two years, we have decided to play with yours. In our defense, I must say, that we have done so with your permission and with the fun as leitmotiv. The plot of the game is simple: A theme, no more than twenty people, adequately selected wines and some element of surprise that distorts or condition the initial judgment and prejudice with which the participants. As a reward, the winner received a detail and had the opportunity to attend free of charge to the next event in addition to the most sincere admiration our and the group.

Our goal? To determine which factors have more relevance in the trial that emits a consumer on a wine in particular. As well, we discriminate the following factors with those who submit to the scan:

• Price: they tend to be rejected both the wines too cheap (below 4€) how expensive wines from 15€ for thinking or a wine is not worth that price or that are not going to appreciate.

• Denomination of origin: land do not understand of bureaucracy. Even so, there are two more popular than others and positive and negative factors.

• Environmental Factors: the temperature of the room, comfort of the furniture, lighting, ambient music, the outside temperature.

• Grape Variety: that is developed with particular characteristics depending on the conditions of the terrain, weather…

• Household: it is not the same drink in a plastic cup, in blind (black glasses that do not view their content), a type of glass or other, etc.

• Typology of wine: what happens when you take rosé wine thinking that it is a white, or when testing a semi-without knowing it. How does the foster care or aging , that is to say, that you think step by barrel or not. Does the same in white and rosé wines that in red wines?

• Pairings: type of food to pair, the time of consumption (before or after), the amount and the quality of the same in your perception of the wine.

• Company: how it affects the presence of experts at your side, or neophytes, or people you trust that you have fun.

• Time: how it influences the duration of the event or the time it takes to consume the product, how it affects the expected you to serve him, that you charge. And the order of wine tasting?

• Quantity: How does the amount of wine served in the cup, the number of wines that you drink and the amount of alcohol you consume?

• Weather or occasion: weather, day of the week, month (Weekends daily, special occasions, personal situation (wedding, travel, etc).

As you can see there are many factors and their combinations is almost endless. However, in spite of the simplification that leads to draw conclusions from a complex topic, the result is surprising.

To carry out the same, ask the audience to after each of the games, participants answered a few simple questions relevant to the theme of the game. These questions, let us know your opinion on the factors under study and these are our conclusions:

1) Not everyone knows of wines, but everybody knows that wine you like and which are not.

It turned out that, regardless of previous experience, all participants had taste and smell as well as sight; this, which seems a truism, does not seem to have it clear beginners who think they are not going to be able to identify the characteristics of a wine for not having done so.

2) The knowledge does not always help.

To know about wines implies having patterns stored, made some dogmas, to guide you through the head and underestimate the information that you provide the senses by giving priority to what looks like things are. This makes your prejudices about any of the above-mentioned aspects make you vulnerable. Therefore, those who did not know and had little experience with them, they used to win more frequently than those with more knowledge.

3) Your opinion on a wine, does not depend on the wine.

In our experience, the concept that you have of a wine depends on sociological or psychological factors, at least in comparable conditions. In other words, the same wine you can know to glory or hell depending on the company, the occasion and the environmental factors that surround it. These three factors are, well above any other, you create a good or bad opinion about the product. Therefore, the experience around wine has as much or more than the product itself.

4) If you want to be taken seriously, take it with humor.

The wine has traditionally been a product with too much paraphernalia. There are those who treat you with respect confused with the snobbery. We respect so much (wine from wine cellar, taking care of your service temperature, the type of glass, advising the client and reporting on their features, and a long etc.).

However, the vocabulary that we use is adapted to each type of consumer and to capture the attention of the customer experience with games that apply a concept that you just a little bit more about wine.

5) The wine does not know where he was born, and surely, you either.

Wine does not understand of bureaucracy. Understanding of climate, soil, varieties of grapes, of modes of development, aging, etc. and these factors, can be surprisingly similar in areas that have little to do with planting rights, boards or geographical proximity. Therefore, within a constituency (geographical or bureaucratic), there may be disparate wines that homogeneity is only in your head, you keep thinking that the “Rioja or Ribera” are “the best,” said usually. Thus, to know the provenance of a wine more than complicated without knowing a priori, it is irrelevant from the point of view of the average consumer, if not by prejudice.

6) The wine is not an end, just the perfect complement to your hobbies.

Our ancestors were going to take a wine passed. Now, the wine is taken while cooking, or at a dinner with friends, going out to restaurants, while you celebrate the end of the year, attend a concert or reading a book next to the fireplace. In other words, the wine is the perfect complement to your hobbies.

For this reason, we have “paired” wine with cooking workshops, photographic exhibitions, music concerts, presentations of books, the world of business, social networks, the theater and the monologues, sports, food, cinema and a long etc. In this environment, which chose for any of these reasons, the wine you created an unforgettable memory!

7) The best wine is the one that you like and you can afford to pay.

You and I, friend winery, we know that the wine has no price, but we do know what it’s worth. And what it is worth, in general has little to do with the wine. We will not go into this topic would give to another assault but if we believe that the awards, the packaging, logistics costs, brokerage or investment in advertising (for some examples) increase the cost, but not the value of the content. If what you value it is the latter, be guided by your own discretion.

8) The betrayal of your senses.

You can taste a wine (blind), change of container, consciously change its color without affecting the flavor (all this for vista), modify their flavor without changing its color, change its temperature (to taste) or even its texture for affect to the touch. You can create a pleasing to the ear or put a mole in the group that claims to know a lot or deceive you in the price, to affect the common sense.

We can put in evidence your senses and the prejudices of your brain and although this ugly to say, we have a lot of fun together with you having made known unto us. If you doubt the sense more treacherous is the view. Most of the prejudice part of information that comes from this sense by what we give the gold medal in this sense. In the second place, and contrary to what you think, the betrayal comes from the hand of the touch.

In the second place, and contrary to what you think, the betrayal comes from the hand of the touch. The texture, and the perception of temperature change to a large extent your perception of the wine.

And in third place is the taste, which in normal conditions prevails over the previous two but forcing common situations in the market (below or over temperature condition of service) completely changes your perception of the product.

We ended up with the timely clarification: this is not law. Just an opinion based on the experience of a significant sample of our society. Surely share some of these facts and others not so much. You are, think what you think, share it. The views such as wine, shared, always know best!

Decantia Group.

Note: This article is the result of our experience. Under the title of Wine Challenge, we have carried out more than 100 events over 16 cities by those who have been around 2,000 people of all ages (age of majority), socio-economic conditions and more diverse backgrounds. In addition, and perhaps most important, with different profiles of relationship with the world of wine, from the blessed ignorance to professional reputation.

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