How To Make Cheap Wine Taste Fancy, According to Science

Yes, you CAN make that $10 sack of goon taste like a $50 bottle of Penfolds!

Us millennials have a pretty rough life. Between brunching on avocado toast and being underpaid, it can be hard to find enough moolah to buy a decent bottle of wine to drown our sorrows in.

It seems at least scientists have got our backs. New research from the Centre for Taste and Feeding Behaviour in Dijon, France, has determined it is entirely possible to make cheap wine taste like a million bucks.

The secret?

Cheese.

Toasted Cheese Sandwich
I am 100% not surprised a study on wine and cheese was conducted by the French. Source

The study used 31 wine experts to taste and rate how much they enjoyed a number of wines when consumed with a number of cheeses. The results overwhelmingly showed that wine tastes better when eaten with cheese, pretty much regardless of what cheese and wine was consumed.

Speaking to The Telegraph, lead researcher Mara Galmarini said,

“In short, when having a plate of assorted cheeses, the wine will probably taste better no matter which one they choose.”

Here’s how the study worked, in case you thought this was just a bunch of scientists getting drunk and eating cheese.

Four wines were selected (a dry, a sweet, a full-bodied, and a fruity wine) to be tasted alongside four types of cheese. Participants would taste a cheese then take three sips of a wine, then choose how the combination tasted from a list of different sensations. This process was then repeated for every wine and cheese combination.

None of the cheeses had a negative impact on the wines, with most of them improving the taste.

cheap wine
But you probably already knew that. Source

More specifically, cheese appeared to increase the red fruit aroma in the red wines tasted. The cheese also reduced the astringency in the wines, the feeling where your mouth goes all tight and dry.

While the wines and cheeses used in the study were pretty fancy (I thought wine just came in red and white varieties?!), the results highlight that cheese overall improves the flavour of wine. Even cheap wine.

So next time you’re on the goons, make sure to pair it with a Homebrand block of cheddar. Instant Class.

cheap wine
Source

The full study can be read in The Journal of Food Science.