Short term memory of the nose

Yesterday Ronaldo and I agreed that our sensitivity for certain scents grows if we smelled that particular scent earlier that day or the day before.
For example: if we ate a pineapple in the afternoon, it is more likely that we notice pineapple aromas in the white wine that we drink that night. Our nose will have an "aha" moment.
Last week I tasted several carmenere wines. The day after I drank a Portuguese wine and I could swear it was Chilean wine/new world wine, even though I had the bottle in my hands and saw the label. I even wondered if somebody tricked me and put another label on the wine.

Now, I have found some information about this experience. I searched: Olfactory acuity after repeated exposure.
No need to read: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3861696/
More interesting, here is a guy that is using this wisdom for wine taste training:
http://savorencyclopedia.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/tasting-exercise-olfactory-acuity/

The contrary would be called Olfactory Fatique
When you taste the same thing again and again, you will loose sensitivity.
worth checking: http://www.enologyinternational.com/articles/senses.html
read also part 2: http://www.enologyinternational.com/articles/senses2.html

But I have not found information about how to tell if a wine is from Chile...in a blind tasting I mean.
Fortunately I did find other interesting articles about wine.

Nice tips how to learn to distinguish grapes.
http://winefolly.com/tag/wine-types/
http://winefolly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/wine-descriptions-infographic.png#fullsize

Some preparation for our next meeting.
http://www.timgaiser.com/how-to-taste-wine.html

Something to discuss next meeting: the mouthfeel wheel
http://www.winepros.com.au/pdf/mouthfeel.pdf
http://www.picksen.com/wine-mouthfeel-wheel
I will put a powerpoint presentation on the confraria website.

Enjoy,
Rolf

Culinary Meeting 29 Aug 2014

The 29 August meeting gathered 9 friends, only 4 bottles of wine, a lot of water because of very tropical temperatures, and the great dishes made by chef de cuisine Claudia and her sous-chef. .
We had:
- oven fried potatoes stuffed with marinated bacon, and sage (salvia);
- pooched pears with time-honey and gorgonzola;
- focaccia with pork sausage and another one with tomatoes;
- a salad of bacalhau and chickpea;
- vitello tonnato
- tzatziki;
- small pies with various cheeses;
as dessert:
- cake drenched in homemade liquor, mirtillos, and covered by a whipped cream sweeted with stevia, vanilla and grand marnier.

Esters

Pear drop
A pear drop is a hard candy popular in England, and it gets its flavors from an ester called isoamyl acetate. Why is that important? Well, because esters are aromatic chemical compounds that are found both in wine and in certain foods. So if someone smells "pear drop" in their wine, they may indeed be identifying that ester. If you haven't had a pear drop, it actually reminds me more of bananas than pears, a sweet-smelling, candied bubblegum (think Juicy Fruit gum) version of bananas. That's the good news. The bad news is that if there is excessive isoamyl acetate in a wine, it starts to take on negative, acetone or nail-polish types of aromas.

About esters in wine
The word ester is a fairly common term in the wine buisness. Esters are quite common in organic chemistry as well as in biological materials. In wine, esters are formed in a reaction between alcohol and acids. By producing esters the wine then gives off its pleasant fruity aromatics. 
Read further:
http://www.wineland.co.za/articles/esters-wine-s-own-perfume

Hyperdecanting

Wine in the blender:
http://www.times-herald.com/closeup/20130808-FOOD-hyperdecanting
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/07/dining/decanting-the-flavor-options.html?_r=0
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/is-decanting-wine-worth-doing-103432638/?no-ist

Scientific proof that opening a bottle is not sufficient
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1683&dat=19980428&id=JDsqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZC4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=6879,6796955