Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/688647
66 { THE SOMM JOURNAL } JUNE/JULY 2016 { scents & accountability } HUMANS ARE PARTICULARLY SENSITIVE TO BITTERNESS. Thanks to a small but novel family of 30 genes, we can perceive thousands of bitter compounds. Our ability to discern bitter tastes evolved as a way to keep our early ancestors from eating poisonous plants. Bitterness is a taste sensation that we experience when mono - meric flavonoid phenols, the compounds that are responsible for bitterness in wine, reach the bitter taste receptor cells on our taste buds. As the receptors send electrochemical signals to the gustatory cortex, we experience bitterness. To what degree determines whether we consider a wine to be merely complex, flawed or faulted. A flawed wine has off aromas and flavors that can be detected and possibly identified, but they don't make the wine unpleasant or undrinkable to the average consumer. Lack of typicity can also count against a wine, but familiarity with the range of varietal expressions possible from different terroirs and winemaking techniques is essential when making that call. Wine is considered faulted when off aromas and flavors suppress or overwhelm the flavor profile and detract noticeably from the quality. There are a handful of culprits that can be responsible for bitterness as a flaw or fault. Alcohol enhances EXAMINING THE CHEMISTRY BEHIND THE TASTE SENSATION by Deborah Parker Wong PHOTO: BYMANDESIGNS VIA THINKSTOCK Material other than grapes (MOG), including leaves, stems and insects, that finds its way into the crusher can result in bitterness. Bitterness Bitterness Now with its joyful prime my age is rife, I quaff enchanting wine, and list to fife; Chide not at wine for all its bier taste, Its bierness sorts well with human life. Omar Khayyám