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description=Joshua G. Feldman s blog of coopered spirit reviews. Whisky, whiskey, bourbon, Scotch whisky, Irish whiskey, Canadian whiskey, Cognac, Brandy, Rye;
description=Joshua G. Feldman s blog of coopered spirit reviews. Whisky, whiskey, bourbon, Scotch whisky, Irish whiskey, Canadian whiskey, Cognac, Brandy, Rye;

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you this is not the case and that my friend is totally okay it s all up to the individual https jason scotchreviews blogspot com 2012 03 slow whisky movement html jason debly s response is quintessentially zen he wants you to be lost in a sea of pure experience in zen words for things get in the way by putting a layer of abstraction between you and the experience itself debly wants you to fully self immerse in the experience without the screen of abstractions that language demands that process of arbitrarily putting experiences into the pigeon holes of words but my position is based on the observation that people s first memories always seem to date back to the time they begin speaking in complete sentences i believe that language provides the structural cognitive framework for memory and that s a part of rewiring your brain blogger and author kurt maitland right tastes with joy rewiring your brain by critically tasting your drams i received an article in an email from a fascinating and talented artist named cindy morefield click the link to see her extraordinary art it was written by one ann sophie barwich a scientist who studies the neuropsychology of sensations particularly smell she wrote a fascinating article on this topic titled becoming an expert in anything whether it s wine tasting or mathematics changes the way you perceive the world https neo life 2020 09 how to change your mind over a glass of wine in this article she s talking about wine tasting but you can see how everything she says is directly applicable to whisky tasting too james opened this for me gratitude lots of people think of wine tasting as a scam but wine tasting is a true scientific art it s just that words sometimes get in the way of it being taken seriously gasoline smelling wines do not contain petrol per se we hope but often share compounds with another substance with a recognizable aroma the brains of sommeliers learn how to link categories of sensory experience i e this smells like petrol to qualitative categories of specific chemical compounds aged riesling for example contains tdn short for 1 1 6 trimethyl 1 2 dihydronaphthalene a compound with the aroma of petrol tdn is a result of carotenoids organic pigments found in many foods including grapes breaking down a process accelerated by higher temperatures many odd wine descriptors including rubber hose and yes cat s piss can be identified as a specific chemical compound by expert noses in the case of cat s piss it s the compound pyrazine found in sauvignon blanc wine has several hundred aroma compounds which is more molecular information than most of our brains have the ability to compute sommeliers have learned how to direct their sensory spotlight to identify specific compounds in a complex mixture they have trained themselves to be extremely good at discriminating and identifying individual aromas and aroma patterns the best wine experts can identify a vintage down to its specific vineyard and even year with a virtuosity that can occasionally take less than a minute acquiring this skillset not only makes sommeliers a knowledgeable if not sometimes exasperating dinner party guest it actually alters the structure and activity of their brains comparing the brain of a mathematician with that of a sommelier we find remarkable similarities in both cases the cellular density of white and gray matter in designated areas increases whether it s sniffing syrah or performing calculus the acquisition of expertise makes parts of the brain thicker in mathematicians for example one of the most prominent changes in the density of gray matter is found in the superior frontal gyrus an area also linked with the coordination of self awareness and most intriguing laughter in comparison changes in sommeliers brain volume were found in the right insula and entorhinal cortex areas that are notably involved in memory processing such changes in neural density give those areas enhanced cortical connectivity and signaling speed as the synaptic connections by which neurons communicate become more tightly packed a consequence of increased neural density is that dedicated specialized areas of the brain better integrate and orchestrate otherwise widespread neural activity expertise of any kind results in a more sophisticated communication architecture of the brain in that article she refers back to a famous and important paper about how london cab drivers have differences in the physical structure of their brains caused by learning the spatial layout of london s crazy streets from the abstract structural mris of the brains of humans with extensive navigation experience licensed london taxi drivers were analyzed and compared with those of control subjects who did not drive taxis the posterior hippocampi of taxi drivers were significantly larger relative to those of control subjects a more anterior hippocampal region was larger in control subjects than in taxi drivers hippocampal volume correlated with the amount of time spent as a taxi driver positively in the posterior and negatively in the anterior hippocampus these data are in accordance with the idea that the posterior hippocampus stores a spatial representation of the environment and can expand regionally to accommodate elaboration of this representation in people with a high dependence on navigational skills it seems that there is a capacity for local plastic change in the structure of the healthy adult human brain in response to environmental demands navigation related structural change in the hippocampi of taxi drivers eleanor a maguire david g gadian ingrid s johnsrude catriona d good john ashburner richard s j frackowiak and christopher d frith pnas april 11 2000 97 8 4398 4403 https doi org 10 1073 pnas 070039597 ann sophie barwich s wiki page explains she is a cognitive scientist an empirical philosopher and an historian of science she is an assistant professor with joint positions in the cognitive science program 1 and the department of history and philosophy of science 2 at indiana university bloomington barwich is best known for her interdisciplinary 3 work on the history philosophy and neuroscience of olfaction her book smellosophy what the nose tells the mind 4 highlights the importance of thinking about the sense of smell as a model for neuroscience and the senses 5 6 7 8 9 she is also noted for her analyses on methodological issues in molecular biology 10 and neuroscience https en wikipedia org wiki ann sophie_barwich so she is well positioned to take the cab driver result and apply it to the subject of whether critical tasting does the same thing to sommelier s brains but in the areas of sensory perception rather than spatial memory but there is a surprise here but here s the paradox when an expert s brain grows they also use less of it the more proficient you are at wine tasting the less activity we ll see in your brain s fmri recording as reported in a scientific study from 2014 if you re processing more information though how are you using your brain less this observation is less puzzling if you compare your brain to the body of an athlete you ll need to put in less overall effort to lift weights if your body is trained to do so routinely with practice some brain activities become automatized and according to the neuroscientist christof koch resemble a zombie agent meaning these processes require less and less conscious effort and attention so do sommeliers become merely better at memorizing patterns like in the legendary study of hippocampi in london cab drivers or do they also get better at the sensory part of smelling itself the answer is both notably a sommelier s skill is not exclusively a method of memory this is what a cabernet sauvignon typically smells like and that is the aroma profile of a barolo training further enhances their ability to be more receptive to aromas in a mixture the sensitivity to odors changes with repeated exposure yet the real surprise is this the previously mentioned 2014 fmri study on expert sommeliers suggests that sensory expertise modifies your experience of reality it affects not just the ability to identify and recall things on a cognitive level but also consciousness itself during tasting the scientists observed activation in the brain stem of experts but not in novices this finding which is still being further explored implies a difference in how sensory information is integrated into the cortical cognitive activity of experts and novices engaging with your perception on an analytical level thus makes a difference in the quality of your experience by fine tuning your brain to its input and having it reorganize its neural story to match you get more control of the quality and content of your own conscious experience by thinking while drinking wine https neo life 2020 09 how to change your mind over a glass of wine emphasis my own ann sophie barwich and i m beginning to think she might actually be a bar witch is telling us that doing the word of developing the perceiving part of our mind will like a muscle you work in the gym make it stronger but that like the muscle you ve developed in the gym you ll work it less hard to do the same work in the future so what remember we re not talking about actual muscles with this metaphor we are talking about the perceiving part of your brain and once you ve developed that part of your brain it will be operational with absolutely everything you use that part of your brain for tasting perceiving seeing patterns and finding meaning in them it s about awareness and perception and that brings us back to zen you will become more fully present and you will make deeper associations the more you grow in this way so how to proceed the answer is simple drink mindfully and in a way that engages with your passion for lisa roper wicker and chip tate that involves knowing the molecular compounds involved in flavors and how the process of making whisky creates or destroys them for me it s finding history in the time place culture and people involved in the liquid for jason debly it s pure zen experience without words let s take jason debly s slow whisky movement tenets as our guide for what to do tenets of the slow whisky movement no 1 a couple of hours after your last non spicy meal seek out a quiet place where you will not be disturbed preferably in the evening when your abode is quiet no t v or radio blackberry smartphones turned off and preferably buried in the backyard get comfortably ensconced in your favorite chair next to you will be a glass with 1 1 2 oz of your favorite comfort scotch or whisky of the moment make sure it is what you want not some recommendation of a fool whisky blogger or a critic s windy must buy malt suggestion of the moment no 2 close your eyes focus on your breathing listen to it when your mind wanders come back to your breathing just be aware of it if a thought comes into your head that s ok but again be conscious of your breathing no 3 reach for your glass of whisky hold the glass and look at the color of the whisky is it dark light reddish really look at it don t worry about the proper vocabulary because there isn t any just you and a glass of whisky bring the rim of the glass to your nose close your eyes and gently sniff twice and move the rim of the glass away what do you think of old leather books grandpa s steaming tea in a thermos cherry pipe tobacco the sea eucalyptus oil hospital bandages and pungent ointment bring the glass back for one more sniff again do some free association no 4 eyes closed take the tiniest of sips how does the spirit behave on the palate sweet sharp spicy what else is there cherries oak honey and sea salt kosher pretzel let your mind wander into the past to good thoughts childhood food and baked goods note the range of flavors marvel at them no 5 swallow what remains smoke iodine coarse salt malty notes spiced honey and oat cakes balsa wood no 6 slowly repeat steps 3 through 5 until your 1 1 2 oz dram serving is gone once it is gone there will be no refills one key aspect of the slow whisky movement is the restriction of your enjoyment to one modest serving of whisky in this way you will relish and catalogue in your mind every nuance fabric weave of flavors of the spirit remember no refills follow these main tenets and drinking any whisky will be a much more immediate and special experience you will experience a greater range of flavors that would be lost with subsequent refills taken from jason debly s scotch whisky reviews blog post https jason scotchreviews blogspot com 2012 03 slow whisky movement html follow your passion and be open to how it informs your perception of the whisky write notes or don t but be mindful about it and integrate all your thinking and bring it to bear on the dram in the dram in your glass in the end it s about really being in the moment instead of using a koan a sound or word like om to take you out of your head and allow you to be meditatively present really present in the present i m suggesting you use mindfully inhabiting the rich tapestry of flavors and aromas in your glass make whisky your koan like all paths to wisdom you have to find your particular path yourself because it is unique to you but in doing so you ll be changing the actual physical structure of your brain in a way that will change the way your perceive and that will change who you are at 1 46 pm 0 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels about how to drink beyond the liquid friday july 12 2019 elijah craig s shift to nas a decline the krav organizes an empirical test a fascinating vertical tasting of elijah craig 12 nas bottlings photo by michael kravitz of diving for pearls blog the bottles above as blind samples poured and ready to go on my table elijah craig was one of my favorite daily pours back in the day it was good bourbon and perhaps coincidentally or perhaps not it was a 12 years old age stated product then a familiar pattern unfolded popularity drove the product towards scarcity and heaven hill opted to remove the age statement so they could goose the production volume to keep it from becoming an allocated item like so many other brands which lose out because they can t deliver enough product to meet market demand you gotta hand it to heaven hill they have managed to keep the product on the shelves even while the boom has boomed but the bourbon skeptical people notice a different facet of the decision first it s higher profit margin to sell younger whiskey so dropping the age statement is just straight up corporate greed what s the real story and who cares is younger whiskey necessarily worse it s one of those truisms of whiskey which need to be punctured and deflated that older whiskey is necessarily better experienced whiskey lovers all have tales of old whiskeys which were over oaked and flabbier than powerful vibrant younger whiskeys can be i ve had my mi...