What is the nature of wine perception, and is wine flavour objective?

Professor Barry C. Smith, Director of the Institute of Philosophy and co-director and founder of the Centre for the Study of the Senses (pictured), was interviewed by wine writer and wine columnist for The Sunday Express Jamie Goode, for Jamie Goode’s Wine Blog.

JG: What can your discipline, philosophy, give to neuroscience that can help here? Or would you consider that perhaps your discipline has changed a bit?

BS: Our discipline has changed a bit. We have always been interested in the nature of experience and the nature of perception. If you ask philosophers what their core business is, it is objectivity and subjectivity. This is one of the reasons I have got into this area. All the great wine critics go on and on telling you things, and then they say, of course, taste is subjective and it is all a matter of individual opinions. And then they tell you which vintage is better than another, and which domain is better. And I think, hold on, I thought it was all subjective and a matter of opinion. So is this just autobiography? If so, why should I care about you? They don’t really believe that it is entirely subjective.

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