Interesting topic. I was considering creating one myself about the palate.
I love food and drinks, and have been to wine tastings and coffee cupping sessions. It’s far easier to pick up notes and differences when comparing different beans or wines, but I rarely got a lot of bags of bottles of wine open, and when I only taste a single bean the next day, it’s not as easy anymore. I have a friend that is far better at it than me in all kinds of drinks. Coffee, wine, whisky. I still enjoy drinking everything, but it would be more fun if I was better at noticing differences.
Has anyone made an effort to improve their palate and ability to taste differences and pick up notes, and improved their ability? Is a lot of it down to genes and what you are born with? I know you can train the palate and get better at it, as I’m sure sommeliers and people in the coffee industry does, but I always wonder if that is people with a more refined palate to begin with. That their natural perception to flavors is part of the reason they got into the industry in the first place.
I saw a good documentary on wine a few years ago called Sour Grapes on Netflix. Very interesting documentary where taste and palate is one of the key topics. It’s about a guy that among other things blended cheaper wines to mimic more expensive ones, created fake labels and sold them at a premium. IIRC, he was able to do this because he had a really good palate and actually managed to blend wines that mimiced the expensive ones in a way that fooled many.