Tasting the arts ::pseudo-synesthesia in wine tasting and visual art perception

You don’t drink wine, you taste it, or rather, you enjoy it. Wine tasting is a rich experience that relies not only on taste, but also on sight, smell, and even touch, and involves various cognitive processes. Like appreciating a symphony or a work of art, wine tasting is a complex interplay of senses that can be influenced by many environmental factors. At the heart of wine perception are the tasters and their sensory experiences. This paper uses an experiment in which participants first taste a wine and then associate it with one of eleven paintings and explain their choice. In other words, we juxtapose two complex experiences that appeal to multiple senses. Our goal is to test whether an association occurs more or less naturally, and to identify its source. The results show that participants make non-random pairings influenced by their approach to wine tasting: intuitive tasters preferred figurative images, while analytical tasters leaned toward abstract art. This study underscores how deeply intertwined our sensory perceptions are and how they shape our enjoyment of wine.