Mental Health

Wine Taste Enhanced by Colors and Music

By Christine Hsu | Update Date: Jun 19, 2014 08:22 PM EDT

A red room and some background music may be enough to turn a cheap $5 wine into a flavorful vintage, according to a new study.

Findings from the world's largest multisensory wine experiment show that a simple change in color and sound can influence the taste of wine by 10 percent.

For instance, listening to 'sweet' and 'sour' songs with red or green lighting can significantly change how a glass of wine tastes.

Researchers said that the latest findings suggest that red light and 'sweet' music, which is both flowing and legato as well as soft and highly consonant, is the best combo to boosting enjoyment.

The stud revealed that green light and 'sour' song with more choppy and staccato, sharp and moderately consonant enhanced the wine's freshness and reduced intensity by 14 percent.

"It's the same as someone moving from being ambivalent about the taste of something to really liking it," said Professor of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University Charles Spence, according to the Daily Mail.

"And, with this experiment, that shift happened in seconds," Spence added.

We were astonished to see that color and sound has such a profound effect on the taste of wine.

"We knew an effect was likely but the results went far beyond what we were hoping for," he said.

"Conducting the world's largest multisensory experiment, over the four days, meant that we were able to unequivocally show, for the first time, that color and sound together have a far greater effect on people's taste perceptions than light by itself," he added.

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