Pop goes a nice bottle of wine and it goes perfectly with your dinner. Does that pop of the cork really affect our perception of the quality of the wine?
Sensory experts Bompas & Parr, funded by the Portuguese Cork Association (APCOR) recently setup a laboratory in SOHO to test such a theory and thus began an experiment. The study was designed to test winos perceptions after hearing that pop versus some of the newer screwcap designed caps. Visitors were placed in a chair and given headphones, walls lined with red velvet, and asked to rate four wines according to their quality, intensity and how much they invoked a feeling of celebration. The wines were served in pairs, and before each one was sampled, the sound of a cork popping or a screwcap being twisted open was played.
The experiment is still currently running in SOHO and the sensory experts hope to learn how that sound affects a wines taste, does it taste better and is your mood more celebratory. We should be in for some interesting results.
Source: The Drinks Business Online, July 2017