Home BlogMindful Eating How Wine Tasting Can Help Us Find Our Ideal Diet

How Wine Tasting Can Help Us Find Our Ideal Diet

by Tansy Boggon

Wine tasting requires the engagement of more senses than simply your taste buds and can teach us how to eat mindfully and select food more intuitively.

Engaging all our senses in wine tasting

Wine tasting requires the engagement of more senses than simply your taste buds.

It requires the engagement of sight, noticing the colour of the wine and the colour reflected in the wine when held up to the light.

It requires taking in the subtle aromas of flowers, fruits, spices, oak or smoke. Swirl your wine glass to release these aromas further, and take a deep and focused inhale to distinguish the aromas.

Wine tasting requires sipping the wine to notice the taste and texture on your palate.

Drinking wine as expert wine tasters do requires your full attention, rather than gulping it down to de-stress and forget about the day or week past!

At a French wine tasting class I attended, we were guided on the above process of wine tasting and were encouraged to identify the aromas of various wines. The aroma that we each perceived varied, as did our preferences. The aromas we notice vary because of previous experiences and our preferences based on past associations and individual differences.

As the sommelier (wine waiter) stated, ‘If we all had the same smell, taste receptors and preferences, there wouldn’t be such a variety of wines. How boring would life be if there was one wine that suited all tastes?’

No one diet suits all, just like no one wine suits all tastes

Your ‘perfect’ diet

Is the same not true for our diet? How boring would life be if there was one diet that suited everyone and if we had the same taste preferences for food?

Therefore, rather than searching for the ultimate diet, would it not be more pleasurable and intuitive to approach eating like a wine taster—engaging all our senses? That is:

  • taking in the appearance, smell, taste and feel of the food you consume whilst also noticing how it feels in your body.
  • eating with your full awareness, appreciation, and enjoyment; acknowledging that what tastes and feels good to you is unique to yourself.
  • trusting and listening to your own body and how it responds to the foods you eat, rather than relying on others to tell you what to eat.

Wouldn’t that be a far more joyful approach to eating?

If you would like to explore your relationship with wine and alcohol further you may find my blog on finding pleasure in mindful sips of wine a great place to start.

You may also like

Leave a Comment