by admin | Aug 18, 2026 | Blog
Is there such a thing as having a bad palate? I was asked that not long ago in a podcast interview with Sean Trace on his show Barrels and Roots. I answered Sean by saying that unless someone has anosmia—meaning they can’t physiologically smell, or ageusia when they...
by admin | Jul 7, 2026 | Blog
Chemosensory scientists study how we process smell and taste. With the latter, they estimate the human tongue has between 2,000 and 10,000 taste buds, with the average adult having between 2,000 and 4,000. Each taste bud also has between 50-150 specialized receptor...
by admin | Mar 26, 2025 | Blog
In the last post I detailed my internal strategies for smelling a glass of wine. As I mentioned, I think smell is by far the most important aspect of tasting. So I do most of the work assessing a wine on the nose. By the time I taste a wine, I’m only doing two things:...
by admin | Aug 28, 2024 | Blog, Strong Water
This post is another chapter from my new book, “Strong Water: On Food, Wine, and Restaurants.” It’s a collection of essays written over the last ten-plus years that will be published this fall. One of the sections in the book is titled “humor.” As I mention below,...
by admin | Apr 11, 2023 | Blog
Jamie Goode’s The Goode Guide to Wine: A Manifesto of Sorts is literally a pocket-sized personal philosophy about wine; from the tasting experience to commercial vs. artisan wine and beyond. In the preface, he states more than once that he fully expects the reader to...
