Book Review: The One Minute Wine Master

I recently read The One Minute Wine Master by Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan, Master of Wine.  The book aims to help all of us – beginners to professionals – quickly identify our wine preferences and find new wines we will like.  This is accomplished by an 11-question (1 minute) quiz about our food and drink preferences.

People differ in how many taste buds are physically present on their tongues.  This accounts (at least in part) for why some of us can tolerate spicier and/or more bitter flavors.  Supertasters/hypertasters have the most taste buds, are very sensitive to strong, spicy, or bitter flavors, and make up about 25% of the population.  Tasters are in the middle, making up about 50% of the population.  Non-tasters have the fewest taste buds, can tolerate the strongest, most bitter, most spicy flavors, and make up about 25% of the population. 

The quiz works by asking questions that reveal our tolerance for various characteristics in our food and drink.  If you like dark chocolate and black coffee, you can tolerate a good amount of bitterness.  If you love lemon on your fish, you like a lot of acid.   If you add sugar to your tea and prefer apple juice, you probably like things mild and sweet.  And so on… 

You used to be able to take this quiz online, but the link given in the book no longer works, so I’ve reproduced the quiz here:

The Quiz
Question	3 Points	2 Points	1 Point	0 Points
1. How do you take your coffee or tea?	Black (nothing added)	A little milk or cream	A lot of milk or cream	I don’t drink coffee or tea
2. How much sugar do you add to your coffee or tea?	None	A teaspoon	Two or more teaspoons	I don’t drink coffee or tea
3. What type of chocolate do you prefer?	Dark, bitter chocolate	Milk chocolate	White chocolate	I don’t eat or like chocolate
4. How often do you put lemon on your fish?	Never	Sometimes	Always	I don’t eat fish
5. What is your favorite juice?	Apple	Orange	Lemonade	I don’t drink juice
6. How spicy do you like your food?	Extremely hot	Medium	Mild	None
7. If you compare the body of a white wine to the body of heavy cream, whole milk, or skim milk, which would you prefer?	Heavy cream	Whole milk	Skim milk
8. If you compare the body of a red wine to the body of heavy cream, whole milk, or skim milk, which would you prefer?	Heavy cream	Whole milk	Skim milk
9. What type of perfume or cologne do you like?	Spicy/intense	Sweet/candied	Floral/fresh	I don’t like perfume or cologne
10. What type of gum do you prefer?	Spicy (cinnamon)	Bubble gum or fruity gum	Fresh (mint, violet, etc.)	I don’t chew gum
11. What is your favorite snack?	Something rich, like chocolate or a candy bar	Something savory, like chips or crackers	Something light, like a piece of fruit or carrot sticks	None of these

And I made a quick chart to show you the recommendations based on your quiz results.  (There's a nifty graphic in the book which I didn't try to reproduce.)

Results and Wine Recommendations (color coded by wine color)
SPRING  (1-13 points)	SUMMER  (14-19 points)	FALL  (20-25 points)	WINTER  (26-33 points)
Riesling	Soave	Primitivo / Zinfandel	Zinfandel
Sauvignon Blanc	Chenin Blanc / Steen	Garnacha / Grenache	Merlot
Pinot Grigio	Torrontes	Syrah / Shiraz	Touriga Nacional
Albarino / Alvarinho	Viognier	Pinotage	Aglianico
Gruner Veltliner	Dolcetto	Sangiovese	Amarone
Marsanne / Roussanne	Bonarda	Tempranillo	Petite Sirah
Anything Rosé	Monastrell / Mourvedre	Carmenere	Malbec
Beaujolais	Nero d’Avola	Pinot Gris	Nebbiolo
Barbera	Cabernet Franc	Gewurztraminer	Tannat
Pinot Noir	Merlot	Chardonnay	Cabernet Sauvignon

Does the quiz work?  This quiz was not very helpful for me personally, since I like most kinds of wine, so I asked some of my friends to take it.  Here are the non-scientific results of my survey.  I highlighted/grouped people based on their reactions to their results.

Responder	Quiz Result	Do you think the quiz works?
Person #1	Fall	“My quiz results made sense, based on wines I know I like.”
Person #2	Fall	“My quiz results made sense, based on wines I know I like.”
Person #3	Fall	“My quiz results made sense, based on wines I know I like.”
Person #4	Fall	“My quiz results made sense, based on wines I know I like.”
Person #5	Fall	“My quiz results made sense, based on wines I know I like.”
Person #6	Fall	“My quiz results made sense, based on wines I know I like.”
Person #7	Fall	“My quiz results made sense, based on wines I know I like.”
Person #8	Fall	“My quiz results made sense, based on wines I know I like.”
Person #9	Fall	“My quiz results made sense, based on wines I know I like.”
Person #10	Fall / Winter	“My quiz results made sense, based on wines I know I like.”
Person #11	Fall	“My quiz results DIDN’T make sense.  The quiz recommended wines I know I DON’T like.”
Person #12	Winter	“My quiz results DIDN’T make sense.  The quiz recommended wines I know I DON’T like.”
Person #13	Summer	“I don’t like wine.”
Person #14	Summer	“I don’t like wine.”
Person #15	Summer	“I don’t like wine.”

Here are some observations:

• Most people came out as Fall.  I don’t know whether this is a coincidence or whether the quiz skews toward a Fall result.  Or maybe the majority of people really are Falls.  Perhaps Fall is the most likely place for average tasters (50% of the population) to land?
• Most people found that the quiz worked for them (though a few didn’t).
• All the people who don’t like wine came out as Summer.  Perhaps Summers are the least tolerate of typical wine characteristics?  

Overall, the quiz seems to work.  However, it’s based on the assumption that what people like for coffee/tea/chocolate/fish/etc. will be the same as what they like in wine, and I’m not sure that’s always the case.  For example, there are plenty of people who have “learned” to drink black coffee, but still want a sweet wine.  And I think a person’s tolerance for bitterness, acid, spice, etc., can vary from food to food and drink to drink.  For example, I love tomatoes and spice, but I’m not crazy about Bloody Marys because I don’t want those flavors in a cold beverage.

Also, most people I surveyed found the 2 questions about skim milk vs. cream to be confusing.  If you’ve had much wine training, you’ll be familiar with using this comparison to talk about light-bodied wines vs. full-bodied wines.  But most casual wine drinkers are unfamiliar with this idea.

I encourage you to take the quiz, and if your results seem promising, definitely buy the book.  It includes lots more information and full descriptions of each recommended wine.  For $11 it's a good value.  And please post your results and what you think of them in the comments.  I’d love to hear how you came out!