The Frontal Cortex : The Subjectivity of Wine
I saw something similar to this some time ago, and here it is repeated with a great summary of some very intriguing research that debunks the idea of wine tasting.
All this really reinforces is that our senses are not a reflection of reality - they are tied to our brains and therefore subject to the interpretations of our brains (everything from past experience to expectations). Our interpretation of the world as determined by our sensory input simply cannot be 100% accurate as a basis of "reality" - our brains just don't allow for it.
Although, I did see a very limited experiment with a vodka expert where he accurately ranked the quality of vodka under blind tasting conditions (it was actually very impressive, 12 different vodkas all ranked perfectly in the order of quality). However, seeing as I don't drink alcohol, I have no frame of reference to determine if the two drinks (wine and vodka) have distinct enough properties where the tasting of them could yield such strangely different results. Also, the vodka experiment was one time with one individual, so there is no way to tell if that was just a random occurrence.
