Unexpected Moments and the Wine Experience

This article uses ethnographic case studies to show how wine connoisseurs learn to appreciate wine. I argue for disaggregating the wine experience between sampling and tasting, and suggest that tasting is a cumulative form of sensorial engagement where connoisseurs build their knowledge to help them understand future wines. I focus on two variables that wine connoisseurs need to master—getting a sense for terroir and learning to name smells—and offer ethnographic data to illustrate how connoisseurs go through this process. I conclude the article by looking at the moments when wine experiences are not easily rendered into wine terminology and suggest that these instances help constitute connoisseurs into drinkers with individual trajectories. Looking at experience brings further clarity to how connoisseurs engage food commodities as objects to be studied and mastered via the senses.