Here's another "study" to pick apart ...

[Robin Garr]

Tasting wine stimulates the brain more than any other action? We've got our doubts. How about you?
http://www.alternet.org/food/tasting-wi ... -more-math

Why do you put the word study in quotation marks? You don't think he did any real research?

I'm unlikely to read the book, but it does seem interesting. I would admit to entering the discussion with skepticism that drinking wine is more stimulating. And I would wonder how the level of stimulation varies across people, according to biology/genetics but also their experiences with wine, and the situation.

But of course I would have no problem believing the basic premise that wine is stimulating!

[Robin Garr]

Why do you put the word study in quotation marks? You don't think he did any real research?

So did the folks in the recent post about wine and music, yet that did not seem to protect it from the forum's opprobrium.

[, yet that did not seem to protect it from the forum's opprobrium.

Valid point, so I'll jump in.
Can't see actual study in that link. But statement "Shepherd goes as far as to state that tasting wine “engages more of our brain than any other human behavior.” is pretty far out there. Did study compare wine tasting to every other human behavior- sex, Japanese tea ceremony, playing a late Beethoven string quartet*, tripping on peyote or LSD, reading Ulysses or Alice in Wonderland, coffee tasting, cooking in a 3 star, etc. etc. etc. ?

I just didn't want Robin to think we're a bunch of sheep.

* they mention listening to classical music, but not performing

But statement "Shepherd goes as far as to state that tasting wine “engages more of our brain than any other human behavior.” is pretty far out there. Did study compare wine tasting to every other human behavior- sex, Japanese tea ceremony, playing a late Beethoven string quartet*, tripping on peyote or LSD, reading Ulysses or Alice in Wonderland, coffee tasting, cooking in a 3 star, etc. etc. etc. ?

It's a book. And statements like that are probably journalistic bombast. I could be wrong, but highly doubtful a scientist would make such unqualified claims.

[David M. Bueker]

Any kind of wine drinking? Sloshing Yellow Tail at a NYE party? Moscato on the yacht?

What happens if you listen to a Beethoven String Quartet while drinking Two Buck Chuck?

It's a book. And statements like that are probably journalistic bombast. I could be wrong, but highly doubtful a scientist would make such unqualified claims.

I dunno. NPR, Food and Wine, Decanter , and a couple of newspaper articles use exact same quote:.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/201 ... sure-helps

That's more sloppy journalism than bombast if quotation marks aren't justified.

[Robin Garr]

What happens if you listen to a Beethoven String Quartet while drinking Two Buck Chuck?

Severe abdominal cramps accompanied by a sad feeling filled with death and ashes?

You can get all that without the Beethoven.

[Robin Garr]

You can get all that without the Beethoven.

There seem to have been several April 1s in the last week or so, Robin.

I'm glad that it is acknowledged that wine does stimulate the brain but, to cite only leisure activities, more than playing chess, reading Proust, watching a Shakespeare play, listening to a late Beethoven quartet........????

I have read Shepherd's book, and his earlier one entitled Neurogastronomy. I was surprised by the quotation from him, and managed to track it down using Google and Google Books. The full quotation is rather more measured than the short version would suggest. It reads: "There is a lot going on [when tasting wine], which is why it can be claimed that the flavor of wine, like the flavor of food, engages more of our brain than any other human behavior." The italics are mine.

It seems that any such claim would be based merely on the logic of how many senses are used rather than empirical evidence - sight, touch, taste, smell and (questionably IMO) sound. He might have added, but didn't here, the motor control needed for swirling, sniffing, sipping, moving it around he mouth and swallowing, and the conscious thought processes an expert might employ.

[Robin Garr]

(questionably IMO) sound.

Amusingly, when I read that, my mind immediately filled up with the very happy memory of hearing a fine older Burgundy being decanted. Pretty far from a primary sensory impression, but thinking of senses in terms of emotions, it makes sense. A little.