Wonders of wine

L-R Villa Maria sauvignon blanc, Stoneleigh Riesling and Peregrine Pinot Noir. Photo / Babiche Martens

Philosophers have regularly used wine to lubricate their debates - at the ancient Greek symposium, wine likely flowed as fast as the thoughts on which Western philosophy was founded.

However, wine itself being a worthy subject for deeper intellectual inquiry or aesthetic contemplation is a relatively recent phenomenon, albeit one that's now being paid attention in today's temples of wisdom.

One of the first major philosophical forays into wine was a conference held by the University of London back in 2004.

This has since spawned symposia across the world and fuelled the publication of a number of books on the subject as thinking and drinking once again becomes regarded as not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Wine has traditionally been considered as a solely sensory artefact by philosophers, for whom it lacks the intellectual dimension required to stimulate cerebral or aesthetic interest, unlike the likes of art, music or literature. Robert Louis Stevenson may have described wine as "bottled poetry", but it is one of the few cultural creations experienced through what are widely regarded as the lesser senses, smell and taste.

But look at the number of tomes devoted to the subject, and the endless discussions about it that emanate from dinner party to wine blog, and it's clear that wine's considered pretty serious stuff by some. In fact there's now scientific proof that those with an active interest in wine are engaging with more than just their senses.

Research using fMRI scans showed that a sip of wine for sommeliers activated not only the part of the brain associated with taste and smell, as it did for the study's non-wine expert control subjects, but the area associated with high-level cognitive processes as well.

"Appreciation has both a cognitive and aesthetic side," notes Kent Bach, Professor of Philosophy at San Francisco University in the fascinating collection of essays in the book, Questions of Taste: The Philosophy of Wine. He observes that in relation to wine, although not essential, "knowledge can guide us to greater sensory pleasures and it can provide pleasure of its own".

As well as sensory gratification, he proposes there are intellectual rewards to be found in a bottle of wine. These derive from learning about the subject, recognising familiar characteristics, comparing different examples and remembering ones we've tried in the past.

Wine can also be a useful tool with which to explore certain philosophical conundrums, according to Tim Crane, Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge University, who considers it "provides philosophy with a vivid illustration of one of the most difficult philosophical problems: the relation between the objective and subjective".