The lighting in a room has a subconscious effect on how wine tastes to us and on how much we are willing to pay for it, according to new German research from the Institute of Psychology at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.
The institute’s researchers presented their work in the “Journal of Sensory Studies”. It included a study of 500 volunteers, who were asked to taste a particular wine under different lighting conditions in the space around them, and to say how the wine tasted to them and how much they would be willing to pay to buy it.
The study showed that the wine was “rated” as tasting better when it was exposed to red or blue light than when the lighting was green or white. Indeed, the same people were willing to pay at least one euro more for a bottle of wine bathed in red light than for one under green light.
According to the lead researcher, Dr. Daniel Oberfeld-Twistel, it was already known that the colour of a drink can influence the way we taste it. The new data showed that the lighting in a restaurant or bar has a similar effect. One explanation is that pleasant lighting subconsciously leads the mind to perceive the wine as more pleasant, too.
In the experimental tastings under different lighting, people perceived the wine as roughly one and a half times sweeter when it was surrounded by red light than by white or green light. The tastings also showed that red light heightens its fruity flavour.
The researchers conclude that the extreme lighting found in some bars undoubtedly affects how customers taste their drinks, over and above the influence that the colour of the drink itself has on its taste. They also recommend that serious wine tastings be held under neutral lighting so that the results are not distorted.
The German scientists are planning further research to better understand the relationship between lighting and taste.
Information from ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ (Athens-Macedonian News Agency)
