Wine taste may be influenced by lighting

A survey conducted by a team of researchers at the Institute of Psychology at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany, suggests that the background lighting present in a room has an influence in how people taste wine.

In the survey, about 500 participants were asked if they liked a particular wine and what price they would pay for the bottle. The team found that the same wine was rated higher when the tasters were exposed to red or bluish ambient lighting and lower in green or white light.

Test subjects were also willing to pay as much as a one euro more on a certain bottle of Riesling when tasted under red light instead of green.

Scientists already know that a drink's color can have an influence on the way it is tasted, says Dr Daniel Oberfeld-Twistel of the General Experimental Psychology division. But they wanted to find out if certain lighting, such as that of a restaurant can also influence the way a wine tastes, he added.

This survey also showed that the wine they were testing, was perceived as being sweeter when served in red light conditions instead of white or green. The fruitiness of the wine was also rated higher in red light.

The research team concluded that the background lighting can have a great influence in how wine is tasted, even without the effect of the color of the wine itself. Extreme lighting conditions experienced in some bars can have a very strong effect on how wine tastes, said Oberfeld-Twistel. He also recommends that wine tasting should be conducted under neutral lighting conditions for best results.

Further research is already planned to find out more about this phenomenon. Scientists believe, however, that pleasant mood lighting can help people regard the wine they are drinking as more pleasant as well.