Abstract
Several recent studies have demonstrated that music can significantly influence the eating/drinking experience. It is not clear, however, whether this influence would be moderated by the expertise of the taster. In the experiments reported here, we tested a large group (N = 154) of very experienced wine tasters—the majority of whom were professionals working in the wine business—at a winemaking conference. The first study assessed the impact of putatively “sweet” and “sour” soundtracks on taste evaluation, whereas the second study assessed more subtle wine‐specific terminology such as length, balance, and body. The results revealed that the effect of music on wine perception can indeed be demonstrated in wine experts. Moreover, the amount of wine tasting experience, as measured in years, did not moderate the influence of music on sensory and hedonic wine evaluation. This result suggests that the aforementioned auditory modulation of drinking experience is not influenced by the increased analytical abilities afforded by traditional wine tasting expertise.
Highlights
Over the last decade, a growing number of studies have started to address the question of whether what we hear can influence what we taste
A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) test with wine (x2) and music (x2) as factors revealed a main effect of music (F3,282=10.99, p < .0005, Wilk’s Lambda = 0.90), of wine (F3,282 = 5.96, p = .001, Wilk’s Lambda = 0.94), and an interaction effect (F3,282 = 2.69, p = .047, Wilk’s Lambda = 0.97)
Given the high level of wine expertise of the participants, we examined the effect of sound on more wine-specific characteristics, such as length, balance, and body
Summary
One of the major points of interest that has emerged from this body of research is the relationship between music and wine (North, 2012; Spence, 2011; Spence et al, 2013; 2014; Wang & Spence, 2015; see Spence & Wang, 2015a, 2015b, 2015c; for reviews). Recent studies have demonstrated that people do consistently match certain wines with specific pieces of music under forced choice conditions (Spence et al, 2013; Wang & Spence, 2015; see Spence & Wang, 2015a; for a review). In a subsequent experiment, tasting the wines while listening to matching music resulted in a small but significant increase in people’s rated enjoyment of the wine-drinking experience as compared to tasting the same wines in silence
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