TIDBITS:
The traditional tastes are sweet, salty, sour (acidity), and bitterness. There is a fifth taste sensation, however. As I promised in the last Snus News, the answer to the fifth taste sensation is umami.
There’s lots of debate about exactly what umami is and does. It was the Japanese who identified and named umami in 1911. Umami is derived from the Japanese words umai (deliciousness) and mi (essence).It’s in many different types of foods from breast milk, ketchup, soy sauce, fresh produce, aged cheeses, shellfish, seaweed, mushrooms, meats (especially slow cooked) and the list goes on. It is also a prominent component of flavored foods, the best known being monosodium glutamate, or MSG. Umami is frequently perceived as a pleasant, even rich, sensation. Think of chicken noodle soup or the “flavor of deliciousness.”
It seems that the most noticeable interaction between umami and wine is with the tannic bitterness of red wine. It seems to increase the astringency. For many, umami and tannin together leave a metallic taste, but some people don’t seem to mind it. Then again, well-cooked meats have lots of umami but almost everyone enjoys red wine with meats. There’s still much to learn about umami.
