Dirty

A negative description of wines with chemical or microbial “off” odors and flavors usually resulting from faulty winemaking. The implication is that something is present in the wine that shouldn’t be.

There are only four basic tastes humans can detect and experience in our food and wine: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter.

Answer: False.

In addition to these four tastes, there’s at least one more that’s known—umami (oo-MA-mee), a word that translates to "deliciousness" in Japanese. Discovered in 1908 by Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda, umami is based on the presence of glutamates (aka glutamic acid), the most abundant type of amino acid in certain foods—and, thus, indicators of protein. In 2000, University of Miami researchers found receptors in our taste buds designed to receive the umami compounds. Umami is present in foods such as blue cheese, meat juices, mushrooms, and fermented soy products like soy sauce. Beyond sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami, there may be even more tastes scientists haven’t yet discovered.

“It takes me twelve minutes to eat a good plate of food and two hours to drink a good bottle of wine, so who cares about the food?”

—Peter Barry
Winemaker/Owner of the Australian estate Jim Barry

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