As a public speaker I often times get to express my thoughts and opinions on a wide range of topics.  I was recently speaking to a group of business people in Asheville North Carolina.  The topic of food and wine (two of my favorites) came up.  I can say without a doubt that discussions on these two topics can last for hours if not for days.  As I spoke about the balance of wine and grape differences I could not help but metion that a big factor between a good taste and a fantastic taste sometimes comes down to memory and expectation.

From the time we are children we begin to create food and beverage memories and expectations.  Take mac and cheese for instance.  As a child, we love the mac and cheese our mom’s made us and as we tasted other people’s mac and cheese we did not seem to like it so much. It doesn’t mean it wasn’t good, it just means it did not meet our expectation.  We set a standard, by memory.  We do this all the time but seldom think about it.  When I peruse a menu in a restaurant and see the prime rib listed, my thoughts immediately go to the fantastic prime rib that my Dad would cook for special occasions and I expect that every prime rib I have will taste like my Dad’s.  We do the same thing when it comes to beverages, wine in particular.  I will never forget the incredible bottle of 1998 Pinot Noir that I had with friends at the top of Mt. Washington and this was way before Pinot Noir was fashionable! Of course, having just reached the summit of this beautiful mountain might also have had something to do with my memory of such a fine wine.  I am a Pinot lover and that bottle memory is the one that I use to base all my Pinot’s against.  If my expectation is not met, it does not necessarily mean that the wine was not good it just means that it did not meet my expectation.  Our memory banks set our food and beverage expectations everyday.  From burgers, pizza and casseroles to fillets, baked stuffed shrimp and crown pork roast!  When it comes to wine it can be plastic, organic cork or a plain old screw top….as long as my expectation is met it matters not to me what the bottle is sealed with.

What’s in your memory bank?

Salute!