Online Wine Tastings: Unraveling Digital Mediation of Taste
“The wine invites you,” Tim, a professional winemaker, explains to us after someone in the chat asks about the correct technique to drink wine. We are sitting in my living room with three glasses of wine and a laptop in front of us. We are taking notes and reflecting on our taste impressions. Apparently, Tim sees wine as an active entity providing its taste, and we, as tasters, do not have to do anything to perceive this taste.
That was not true. We learned to swill the glass, identify the color, smell the odor, and spread the wine in our mouths — via Zoom. Surprisingly, this procedure was not just part of an elitist habitus but undoubtedly changed our taste perception.
It all started in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, and wine tastings were no exception regarding the shift towards virtual interactions. These virtual events provided a unique setting to explore how technology impacts our multi-sensory perception, especially taste as one of our fundamental senses embedded in social and cultural aspects. Therefore, we attended three more digital wine tastings and experienced a change in our tasting practice and perception, leading to our paper “Becoming an Online Wine Taster: An Ethnographic Study on the Digital Mediation of Taste.” (link)
Our study offers unique insights into how digital mediation impacts taste-making in the context of online wine tastings. Our research team embarked on an auto-ethnographic journey leading to organizing one tasting event by ourselves at the end. Through field notes and observations, we sought to understand the interplay of tasting techniques, taste communication, knowledge transfer, and the impact of digital conditions on the experience. External study participants accompanied us to attend the tastings in order to observe the negotiation about taste in situ. Moreover, we wanted to see if and how this negotiation and mediation occur within the different online meeting formats.
The Art of Online Taste-Making
In the virtual world of online wine tastings, participants engaged in sensory exchange through chat with presenters, winemakers, and fellow tasters. This chat-based communication was a surrogate for the lively discussions and collective performances typical of in-person tastings. Participants sensitized themselves to taste by exchanging immediate sensory impressions, fostering a sense of community despite physical distance. However, the different practice elements, such as the format (e.g., Webinar) or the use of polls, shaped the engagement and interaction.
Digital Mediation and Democratization of Taste
Our study highlights challenges and opportunities from digital mediation in wine tastings. While the online medium limits certain aspects of the tasting experience, it also is a chance to access wine tastings, for instance, anonymously or without prior knowledge. Participants from diverse locations participated in these events, transcending geographical boundaries and trying to make taste more inclusive. Despite some advantages of online tastings, they cannot fully replicate traditional in-person tastings’ material and social conditions. However, we saw that the privately organized tastings offered more space for collective negotiation about the wine and its taste. As a result, the paper suggests that both online and in-situ tastings will coexist, each catering to distinct preferences. Moreover, we analyzed that wine tastings still serve as a means to social distinction, classifying people into an in and out-group.
Our findings emphasize the importance of online interactions in shaping collective taste experiences and set the stage for more inclusive human-computer interactions in the realm of taste. “Becoming an Online Wine Taster: An Ethnographic Study on the Digital Mediation of Taste” explores how digital technologies influence taste-making in online wine tastings. The paper broadens our understanding of taste as a social phenomenon by delving into the interplay of sensory experiences, collective negotiation, and digital mediation.
If you’re interested in learning more about this topic, read our paper (here) and feel free to reach out to me (here) or chat with me at CSCW 2023.
