In the 17th century, Swiss soldiers were exempt from military service if they had just planted a vineyard. The reason wasn’t because they needed to tend the vineyard. It was because they were susceptible to “nostalgia” if they had to leave it. Nostalgia was considered a debilitating condition at the time. And potentially a fatal one.
The story of premium wine is filled with anecdotes and tales like this. Stories that underline the unique ability of wine to bind itself to our desires, motivations, and emotions. We don’t just love great wines because they are great to drink. We are drawn to them because they are good to think.
The 17th century Generals of the Swiss army didn’t know how and why wine created such powerful emotions. But today science has the answers. Of all the senses, smell has the most direct and intimate access to the brain’s emotional and memory systems. The olfactory bulb that detects wine’s aromas connects straight to the amygdala and hippocampus; the regions responsible for emotion. As well as memory formation and autobiographical recall. If you remember exactly where you were, and who you were with, and how you felt when you tried “that” wine… this is why.
Importantly they connect without first filtering through the thalamus. It is a unique and direct pathway. And it’s why aromas trigger vivid feelings and personal memories more powerfully than any other sense.
For a writer like Proust, this power gave us great literature. But for those of us in wine, it means aroma can be a psychological shortcut. Knowing that scents evoke nostalgia, emotional warmth, and personal identity far faster than words, sounds, touch, or visuals.
Does this mean the best way to sell wine is to say it tastes of strawberries, or vanilla, or the garrigue of a French hillside? Curiously… no. It’s the meaning that matters, not the flavours. In much the same was as a diamond is “forever”, a glass of Champagne is “celebration”. A bottle of Port is “tradition”. And premium wines of every type evoke friendship, reunions, memories, bonds, achievements, beginnings, endings, and even nostalgia.
It is possible to focus too much on what wine is rather than what wine does. We must make sure to capture why someone planted their vineyard in the first place and why they might be nostalgic to leave it. And why someone will remember the wine it produced long after they’ve finished the bottle.
Making it good to drink is half the story. Making it great to think is the other half.
