Don’t worry, be happy and you’ll enjoy your wine even more

Have you ever discovered a wine while on holiday that you think is the greatest thing only to bring a bottle home and find out it’s completely ordinary?

The wine hasn’t changed. You have. When you were on vacation you were carefree and enjoying the joys of being away from deadlines and drama. At home, your stress level returns and your emotion — including perceptions of taste and aroma — changes.

German winemaker Martin Messmer says he’s often aware how mood and stress levels affect the enjoyment level of visitors to his winery in Burrweiler, located in the forested slopes of the Haardt Mountains in the southern Pfalz.

Messmer’s winery is located on the German Wine Route, near the French border. He often sees people coming into the region for a vacation or heading back home to reality.

When he senses someone is keyed up from the tension of driving, he’ll try and put them at ease. “I tell them, ‘Oh, I have something special for you … ” he says. Their perception of his wine becomes more positive as they shake off the stress of the journey.

For special tour groups, Messmer has a custom designed room where he can manipulate the lights, play different music and video presentations as he presents his wines. Pouring one wine at a time, without revealing its identity, he asks guests to rank each sample’s taste, balance, acidity and finish using a scale from 1 to 5 before guessing which grape variety they’re tasting.

The trick is he often pours the same wine multiple times, with the room bathed in different colours of light and broadcasting different images and music selections.

Having led hundreds of similar demonstrations, he explains people always enjoy the wine’s taste, balance and length best when the room is bathed in warm, yellow light as opposed to cool blue or green hues.

“We are all manipulated in our taste all of the time,” he explains.