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Hello. This is 6 Minute
English from BBC
Learning English. I'm Sam.
And I'm Rob.
Rob, would you describe
yourself as a wine connoisseur?
If you mean am I someone who
enjoys wine and knows a lot
about it, then no - although
the enjoy part is true -
particularly a nice glass of red.
Of course, wine might not
be everybody s cup of tea -
not something they like -
but wine has been an
important part of
history and language.
And even if you don't drink
alcohol, wine can be used
as a commodity you can
invest in and sell
at an auction.
And that brings me on
to my quiz question, Rob.
In 2018, a bottle of wine
dating back to 1774 sold
at auction in eastern France
for a record-breaking price.
Do you know how much
it was sold for? Was it...
a) $20,800
b) $120,800
or c) $220,800?
I know wine can fetch
a high price - but not as
high as some of those
options, so I'll
say a) $20,800.
I'll reveal the answer
later on. But let's talk
more about wine now.
A glass of the stuff
can be sipped and
savoured or just glugged.
Glug is a good word,
meaning drink in large
gulps or mouthfuls - not
something a wine expert
would do. For some
people, drinking and
serving wine is
almost an art-form.
If you go to a restaurant,
there might be a sommelier -
a person whose job is
to serve and give advice
about wine. They may
have had years of
training to learn about
the different types of
wine and the individual
flavours or aromas,
known as notes.
This job has fascinated
journalist and author
Bianca Bosker. She wrote
a book called 'Cork Dorks'.
And here she is talking
on the BBC World
Service programme The
Why Factor describing her
fascination with sommeliers
These were people who had
taken wine, which I always
thought of as a thing of
pleasure, something you
turn to after a long stressful
day, and turned it into
something approaching
sheer God-awful pain.
They licked rocks, trained
their palates, they
divorced their spouses
to spend more time
reviewing flash cards -
they had hired voice
coaches and memory
coaches, they took dance
classes to learn how to
move more gracefully
across the dining room floor.
Like me, Bianca thought
drinking wine was a
pleasurable activity -
something that helped
her relax after a long
stressful day. So she
was surprised at how
sommeliers turned this
activity into 'something
approaching sheer
God-awful pain'.
The word 'sheer' is used
to emphasise the amount
of something - or to mean
'nothing but'. She
thought the work of a
sommelier was nothing
but pain - they seemed
to dedicate their
life to wine!
One thing a sommelier
does is train their palate -
this is their ability to
distinguish and appreciate
different tastes and
identify types of good wine
from their taste. I guess
this is quite important.
But divorcing their spouses
does sound a bit extreme!
I m afraid I wouldn't take it
so seriously - I'll stick
to drinking poorer quality,
cheap red wine -
sometimes called plonk!
WeIl, Rob, cheap wine
doesn't always have to
be poor quality.
Interestingly, there is
some evidence that
shows we only think
wine tastes better
because it's
more expensive.
Ah yes, this is research
Hilke Plassmann from
INSEAD Business School in
France spoke about on
the BBC World Service's
Why Factor programme.
She's been looking into
what influences
consumer behaviour.
The price tag affects that
region in your brain that
encodes your liking of the
taste, so in other words,
you not only think that you
like the more expensive
wine more, you feel you
like the more expensive
wine more, because your
brain region that encodes
this feeling is influenced
by the price tag.
So, our brain is possibly
playing tricks on us.
When we see the price tag
on a bottle of wine, our brain
encodes the information and
tells us how it should taste.
Encodes means changes
the information into something
that we can use or understand.
Drinking more expensive
wine makes you think it
tastes better. So
perhaps, when buying
supermarket wine or wine
in a restaurant, it may
be better telling yourself
that the cheaper
option is OK!
I'll drink to that! But
I wonder how that
most expensive bottle
of wine ever sold at auction
tastes? The one dating
back to 1774 that you
asked me about.
So you thought it sold
for $20,800, but sorry,
Rob, that's too cheap.
It was in fact sold for
$120,800. I assume it
wasn't drunk.
I hope not. Well, I think I'll
stick to my plonk for
now, Sam. Plonk was
one of our vocabulary
words today and
describes cheap,
poor quality wine.
We also mentioned a
connoisseur - someone
who enjoys a particular
thing and knows
a lot about it.
A sommelier is someone
who serves and gives
advice about wine
in a restaurant.
Sheer is a word
used to emphasise
the amount of something -
or to mean 'nothing but'.
A palate describes
someone's ability to
distinguish and appreciate
different tastes.
Finally, encodes means
changes information
into something we
can use or understand.
But now we're out
of time so
'cheers' everyone.
Thanks for listening
and goodbye.
Goodbye.