How can you train your sense of smell? Why does smelling require much more focus than our other senses? What is retronasal olfaction and why is it so important when it comes to enjoying wine?

In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with author Johannes Frasnelli.

You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks

Highlights

Do wine aroma kits help to improve our ability to smell and taste wine?

What positive changes occur in the brains of master sommeliers?

How does our emotional state influence our ability to perceive scents?

Do humans have pheromones, and how can our body odours influence each other?

Is there a difference in how our brains process wine aromas compared to synthetic scents?

How is olfactory marketing used by certain brands to improve their customer experience?

What is the role of retronasal olfaction in wine tasting and flavour perception?

What is synesthesia, and how does it relate to perception in wine tasting?

What are the main factors that influence the recovery of the sense of smell?

Which areas of olfactory research are Johannes most excited about?

Key Takeaways

Johannes explains that master sommeliers train their brain's sense of smell just as many people train physically when they go to the gym. The key is to make it challenging. What we can train most about smell is its connection with language. It's important to talk about the smells we detect with each other. It's not enough just to have odors go by. You have to actively try to identify them.

Smelling is difficult for humans Johannes observes. We can oversee a visual scenery very quickly. With smelling, we don't have these abilities. When we smell something in our environment, it is much more work for us to identify the particular odors, and we have to concentrate. We don't do that a lot. So you need to have the mental spare time to focus.

Johannes says that retronasal olfaction is not only when you swallow wine, it's also when you have it in your mouth. When sommeliers swish the wine around their mouths, the molecules heat up and get pushed up into the nasal cavity, which is also part of the retro nasal component. You can test this by just pinching your nose. You won't smell because it's blocked in the front, the air cannot enter. Then as soon as you release the nose, then you will have this additional smell dimension. Retronasal olfaction is really the key player when it comes to smell and flavor perception.

About Johannes Frasnelli

After being trained as a physician at University of Vienna, Austria, Johannes Frasnelli was a visiting scientist in research labs in Dresden, Germany, in Philadelphia, PA, in Stockholm, Sweden, and in Bozen, Italy. He is currently a professor for human anatomy at the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières (UQTR), while also being a regular researcher at the Research Center of the Sacré-Coeur Hospital of Montreal. His research focuses on the physiology, the psychology and the pathology of the sense of smell.

To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/312.