Sweet or sensitive . . . which type of wine drinker are you?
WHEN picking a bottle of wine that goes perfectly with your meal, it is easy to make the wrong decision.
But those unsure which grape to choose, and whether a tannic or oaked wine is best, may now have a solution.
A study appears to confirm the theory that we all fall into one of four types of wine drinker. People are classified by their palate as either ‘sweet’, ‘sensitive’, ‘hypersensitive’ or ‘tolerant’.
Those who are sweet types are more tempted by prosecco or white zinfandel, while the hypersensitive would rather avoid strong flavours and prefer a dry chardonnay or pinot grigio.
Sensitive drinkers are open to trying all types, although they may shy away from tannic wines, which have a more bitter taste, or oaked wines,
which have a vanilla taste. But tolerant drinkers like firmer, stronger flavours, favouring red wines and tannic ones – which get their bitter flavour from grape skins and seeds. They will probably prefer cabernet sauvignon or mal-
bec. The US study says the four types may work better than traditional advice on which wine to drink with different meals.
Researchers found that those who dislike spicy foods tend to fall in the sweet type.
And people who prefer coffee to tea are probably in the tolerant group and will enjoy an ‘oaked’ white wine.
Lead author Dr Carl Borchgrevink said: ‘The palate rules – not someone else’s idea of which wine we should drink with our food.’
The four types of wine drinker were devised by wine consultant Tim Hanni, but have been tested by Michigan State University.
The study, published in the International Journal of Wine Business Research, concludes that restaurants could list wines by flavour characteristics for the four types of people, and in order of their intensity.