Blind tasting—deducing the grape, age and geographic origin of a wine based on sensory analysis alone—can seem like the wine world’s most mystical practice. Wine flavor scientist Dr. Rachel B. Allison came on the Modo di Bere podcast to break down exactly how it’s done. You can watch Dr. Allison blind taste a wine in the video version of the podcast, and maybe even start to learn how to blind taste wine yourself.

Dr. Allison chats with RT about how she grew up bilingual, thinking in a language the rest of her family didn’t understand. They contemplate whether Montreal’s favorite swear word is actually a wine term, and they discuss how getting in better touch with your own sense of smell is a lot like learning a language.

Dr. Rachel B. Allison, a wine flavor scientist, educator, and competitive blind tasting champion who grew up bilingual in Canada. Dr. Allison has a Ph.D. in wine flavor chemistry from Cornell University, and an Undergraduate degree in Engineering Chemistry from Queen’s University. Her paper with Austin Montgomery on hydrogen sulfide formation in canned wines was selected as the Best Enology Paper of 2023 by the American Society for Enology and Viticulture. Alongside many previous accolades, Dr. Allison was just named one of Wine Enthusiast Magazine's Future Forty in 2024. Learn more about Dr. Allison's work at www.rachelballison.com.

Watch this episode on YouTube @mododiberepodcast

If you love this show and want it to continue, support Modo di Bere on Patreon. www.patreon.com/MododiBere

Modo di Bere is an educational media project by Rose Thomas Bannister. In addition to this podcast, Rose Thomas also makes:

A newsletter! Sign up for Modo di Bere Magazine at www.mododibere.com A travel show! Subscribe to Modo di Bere TV youtube.com/@mododibere Many friends! Meet them when you follow @mododibere on Instagram and TikTok Music composed by Ersilia Prosperi for the band Ou: www.oumusic.bandcamp.com Buy their latest album at https://folderol.it/ou/

This episode was produced and recorded by Rose Thomas Bannister Edited by Giulia Àlvarez-Katz Audio assistance by Steve Silverstein

Ascolta il podcast in Italiano / Listen to the podcast in Italian! Cerca / Search: Modo di Bere Italiano