New Scientific Study Shows that Rats Can Effectively Blind Taste Wine

Blind tasting wine can serve various purposes. For sommeliers, blind tasting is a way to study the typical characteristics of wine or judge its quality. For wine enthusiasts, it’s an excuse to taste wine for sport. (And here at VinePair, we think it makes for a compelling YouTube series.) A recent scientific study, however, applied this pastime for a completely new purpose: to prove the olfactory abilities of rats.

The study, published February 21 in the Journal of Animal Cognition, set out to discover if non-human animals can discriminate between complex odor stimuli without language. The paper states that while humans typically have fewer functional olfactory receptors than other mammals, scientists often argue that our species’ use of language and higher cognitive abilities help compensate for this.

“In complex tasks such as wine tasting, increased cognitive resources, including the use of language to aid olfactory memory and categorization, have been proposed to boost human olfaction beyond the simple discriminatory abilities seen in other mammals,” the study states in its introduction. This begs the question of whether non-human animals, like rats, can detect odor stimuli with different perceptual dimensions at the same level as humans without the ability to communicate. And what better way to test this hypothesis than with a good old-fashioned blind tasting?

In the experiment, researchers used wine as the olfactory stimuli since it represents a highly complex chemical mixture that varies greatly between expressions. The team selected two white varieties, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc, for the behavioral tests, as these grapes tend to be aromatic, with very distinctive characteristics.

First, the rats underwent the training portion of the test (their certified sommelier course, if you will). For this part of the experiment, the researchers selected four different bottlings of Sauvignon Blanc, all from France and Chile, and four Rieslings from Germany, France, and Austria. Each of the rats was placed in a modular test chamber equipped with a custom odor delivery system that contained each wine in a paper cup. (Not the Riedel glasses we were expecting, but it will do.) The rats were then trained to expect a treat when one type of wine was present so they could learn to differentiate between the aroma of wine attached to a reward and that of non-reinforced wines.

Credit: Journal of Animal Cognition

In the testing portion, new wines were selected for each variety, including Sauvignon Blancs from the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand, and Rieslings from France, Germany, and Australia, each presented to the rats in random order. The rats’ ability to differentiate between grape varieties was determined by whether or not they pressed a lever in response to the wine that had been associated with the reward in the trial period.

After observation, the scientists determined that the rats were able to generalize between Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc. In the test portion, there was a 94 percent success rate in identifying the correct grape variety for trained wines, and a 65 percent success rate for the novel wines. The results demonstrate that, with training, rats can generalize between grape varieties, indicating that non-human mammals can discriminate between complex odor categories.

So watch out sommeliers, rats might be coming for your job soon. Or is it just time for a somm-themed “Ratatouille” sequel?

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