3 Brain Hacks To Make You a Better Taster

Are you the proud owner of a highly-trained nose?

Do you have a discerning palate?

Or perhaps you are a certified supertaster?

Such terms suggest a roll of the genetically modified dice when it comes to one’s abilities to distinguish and identify the complex aromas and flavours of wine, whisky, brandy, rum, gin, and so forth. A connoisseur. A Sommelier. Or even a talented enthusiast. Skills that reside in nature rather than nurture. But this rather underhandedly hides the truth.

While our flavour hardware, i.e. our genes, play a significant role in our sensory interpretation of the world, expertise has a lot more to do with software rather than hardware. For a more detailed discussion, take a look at: How Your Nose Makes Sense of Complex Whisky and Wine. The exciting upshot is that, much like downloading a computer update, if you can hack your brain, you can hack your sensory abilities.

Hence, today we share three neurological insights that have the potential to change how you taste wine and spirits. While they may be at the fringes of convention, they are nonetheless grounded in science (no wizards, elves, or rune stones were consulted for this article). So with an open mind and electroencephalographs at the ready, let’s dive straight in.

In short:

1. Boost the survival and integration of new olfactory neurons in your brain though experiencing novel odours.

2. Leverage sniffing through alternate nostrils to enhance neural programming.

3. Reorganise and optimise your sensory brain through auditory rhythms and music.

Hack One: Use Odours As Neural Dumbbells

Recent neuroscience research reveals that exposing yourself to novel smells, not just familiar ones, can actually enhance your olfactory function by boosting the survival and integration of new neurons in your brain. Let’s break down what that means and how it can help you level up your sensory wine and spirit skills.

Contrary to old beliefs, the adult brain can grow new neurons. This process, called adult neurogenesis, happens in only a few brain areas, one of which is the olfactory bulb – huzzah! The olfactory bulb is your brain’s relay centre for processing smells.

A study by Lledo, Alonso, and Grubb (2006) showed that thousands of new neurons are born in the olfactory bulb daily. But they don’t automatically stick around. Their survival depends on how much ‘work’ they do. If you challenge your sense of smell, especially in meaningful or complex ways, those neurons are more likely to become permanent parts of your sensory system.

It’s learning, not just sniffing.

For wine and spirit tasters, this means that structured aroma training, like blind smell tests or identifying subtle differences between barrels or vintages, can literally help your brain become better at processing aromas.

Even more exciting is what happens when you introduce new smells regularly. In a 2009 study by Veyrac et al., mice exposed to a new odour every day developed stronger smell memory and grew more neurons than those exposed to a constant, unchanging scent environment.

Why does novelty matter? The brain’s noradrenaline system, which responds to new and surprising experiences, helps trigger neurogenesis and memory formation. In short, trying new scents energises your brain to grow and adapt.

Here’s how you can apply these findings:

• Smell new things daily: Exotic fruits, spices, perfumes – variety is key.

• Engage your brain: Don’t just sniff – actively describe, compare, and categorise aromas.

• Rotate your reference set: Don’t get lazy – venture beyond the aroma descriptors you use most often.

• Use blind tastings: They force your brain to process smells more attentively.

Hack Two: Reprogramme Your Brain Using Alternate Nostrils

When it comes to refining your sense of smell, could simply plugging one nostril give your brain a boost? Surprisingly, yes – at least under the right circumstances. Neuroscience suggests that which nostril you use to sniff affects how your brain processes smells. The key lies in how each nostril connects to different brain hemispheres.

Each nostril sends odour signals mostly to the same-side hemisphere: the left nostril to the left hemisphere, the right nostril to the right. This is significant because the left hemisphere is better at language, memory, and naming smells, while the right hemisphere excels at emotional, holistic, and intuitive processing.

In odour identification studies, participants often performed better when using their left nostril, suggesting that left-hemisphere processing is more helpful when the goal is to name or classify a smell. For instance, Savic & Gulyas (2000) found left-nostril superiority in naming odours. Similarly, Zelano et al. (2020) discovered that each nostril's input reaches the brain at different times, implying temporally distinct processing.

This idea matches what’s seen in expert wine tasters. In fMRI studies of sommeliers (Pazart et al., 2014), wine professionals showed greater left-hemisphere activation, as opposed to novice tasters who were more right-hemisphere dominant. Significantly, this related to areas like the hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, and orbitofrontal cortex, all linked to memory, classification, and value judgement.

So, does this mean you should train your nose by sniffing only through your left nostril? Not quite. While unilateral sniffing through the left nostril may help with identifying and naming odours, the right nostril still plays a vital role, especially in processing emotional nuance, intensity, and novelty.

Think of the left nostril as the expert analyst and the right nostril as the artist. Both are necessary for a full flavour experience, and true expertise involves integration, not dominance. However, for sensory training focused on recognition, description, and recall, a few sessions of left-nostril sniffing could help reinforce those pathways. It’s like training a musician’s left hand before integrating the full piece.

Here’s how you can apply these findings:

• Train the left nostril for sensory analytics: prioritise left nostril nosing when undertaking analysis.

• Train the right nostril for value judgements: when rating or scoring samples, or creating tasting notes.

Caveat: the body prioritises one nostril over the other throughout the day, and the priority changes every few hours. This is why you may experience one nostril feeling more blocked than the other at times. This will obviously impact one’s ability to smell using a single nostril, hence, this may need to be taken into account when applying such training

Hack Three: Use Rhythm To Reorganise Your Sensory Brain

Fascinating studies suggest that our brains use different frequency bands, i.e. brainwaves, to interpret and integrate sensory experiences like taste and smell. Not only that, these frequencies appear to respond to auditory rhythm. A new study is helping us understand how this rhythmic activity could influence flavour perception.

The brain communicates with itself using patterns of electrical activity called brainwaves, or frequency bands. Each range of frequencies supports different cognitive functions:

• Delta (0.5–4 Hz): Deep sleep and restoration

• Theta (4–8 Hz): Memory, emotion, and creative insight

• Alpha (8–13 Hz): Calm alertness and sensory filtering

• Beta (13–30 Hz): Active thinking and motor control

• Gamma (30+ Hz): Sensory integration and conscious perception

We don’t use just one at a time, these frequencies work in concert, shaping everything from mood to attention and, as evidence now shows, sensory experience.

A 2025 study by Rosso et al. introduced FREQ-NESS, a method for tracking frequency-specific brain networks in real time. Using MEG (magnetoencephalography), the researchers showed how different brainwave patterns change when we go from resting to listening to a rhythmic tone (2.4 Hz).

They discovered that:

• The brain hosts multiple frequency-specific networks simultaneously

• These networks reconfigure in response to rhythmic sound

• Low-frequency auditory input can modulate high-frequency activity, like gamma waves associated with perception

This dynamic reorganisation suggests that rhythmic auditory inputs might reshape the way we interpret our environment, including taste and aroma.

Though the study focused on auditory processing, the implications extend to flavour. Flavour is multisensory – blending taste, smell, texture, and even sound. It requires complex neural integration, especially in the gamma range. If rhythmic inputs can enhance this integration, they may well amplify or alter how we experience flavour.

Supporting research includes:

• Theta and gamma rhythms in the olfactory cortex during odour recognition (Howard et al., 2017)

• Increased theta activity when taste and smell cues don’t match (Saito et al., 2019)

• EEG evidence linking alpha and theta bands to how much we enjoy a taste (Zheng et al., 2023)

Together, these studies suggest flavour isn’t static, it’s shaped by our brain’s rhythms, which can be influenced by external stimuli like music, tempo, or even breathing patterns. The brain reorganises itself when exposed to rhythmic sound, especially at slow, steady frequencies like 2.4 Hz. This entrains brain activity, strengthens sensory networks, and increases cross-frequency coupling (communication between slow and fast brainwaves).

This may explain to some extent, why certain songs can enhance the experience at whisky tastings and wine tastings. Or why people utilise music for focus, concentration, and meditation. The use of rhythm primes the brain for better integration of sensory input across smell, taste, and texture.

Here’s how you can apply these findings:

• Introduce rhythmic audio (e.g. slow ambient beats or gentle metronome pulses) in tasting environments to help the brain ‘tune in’ and enter a perceptive state.

• Encourage paced sniffing or sipping in sync with a rhythm – this could enhance attention, increase sensory awareness, and help participants notice more nuanced flavours.

• Use breath pacing or guided rhythm during sensory training to enhance cognitive focus and reduce internal noise.

Conclusion: Turning Neuroscience into Wine and Spirit Tasting Skills

The latest neuroscience makes one thing clear: the way we smell, taste, and interpret wine and spirits isn't fixed, it's adaptable, trainable, and even reprogrammable. It goes far beyond the receptors in one’s nose and the taste buds on the tongue. It’s a neural process and as such can be trained in the same way we can learn to juggle or play a piano. By introducing novelty, engaging in structured learning, and harnessing sensory rhythms, we may be able to physically rewire the brain to perceive more, remember better, and describe with greater clarity.

Our goal through our workshops and courses at The Sensory Advantage is not just to enhance your sensory skills, but to upgrade the very system that underpins them: your brain. Whether you're a sommelier, distiller, blender, winemaker, or enthusiast, our approach helps you move beyond static tasting notes into a dynamic world of sensory intelligence – where every aroma is an opportunity, and every sip becomes a new connection. Ask not what you can smell, but why you smell it?

References

• Zelano, C., Mohanty, A., & Gottfried, J. A. (2020). Olfactory inputs from the two nostrils are temporally segregated in human piriform cortex. Current Biology.

• Savic, I., & Gulyas, B. (2000). Functional imaging of sex differences in odor perception. Chemical Senses.

• Pazart, L., et al. (2014). An fMRI study on the influence of sommeliers’ expertise on the integration of flavour. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience.

• Small, D. M., & Prescott, J. (2005). Odor/taste integration and the perception of flavor. Experimental Brain Research.

• Cerf-Ducastel, B., & Murphy, C. (2001). FMRI of human olfaction: A method for studying olfactory activation using odorant stimuli. Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

• Lledo PM, Alonso M, Grubb MS. (2006) Adult neurogenesis and functional plasticity in neural circuits. Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

• Rosso, M., Fernández-Rubio, G., Keller, P.E., Brattico, E., Vuust, P., Kringelbach, M.L., Bonetti, L. (2025) FREQ-NESS Reveals the Dynamic Reconfiguration of Frequency-Resolved Brain Networks During Auditory Stimulation. Advanced Science.

• Dalal, T., Gupta, N., Haddad, R,. (2020) Bilateral and unilateral odor processing and odor

  perception. Communications Biology.

• Veyrac, A., Sacquet, J., Nguyen, V., Marien, M., Jourdan, F., Didier, A. (2009) Novelty Determines the Effects of Olfactory Enrichment on

  Memory and Neurogenesis Through Noradrenergic Mechanisms. Neuropsychopharmacology.

• Alonso, M., Viollet, G., Gabellec, M.M., Meas-Yedid, V., Olivo-Marin, J.C., Lledo, P.M. (2006) Olfactory Discrimination Learning Increases the Survival of Adult-Born Neurons in the Olfactory Bulb. The Journal of Neuroscience.