We think we know how to appreciate wine--trained connoisseurs take dainty sips in sterile rooms
and provide ratings based on objective knowledge and technical expertise. In Epistenology
Nicola Perullo vigorously challenges this approach arguing that it is the enjoyment of
drinking wine as an active and participatory experience that matters. Perullo argues that wine
comes to life not in the abstract space of the professional tasting but in the real world of
shared experiences wines can change in these encounters and drinkers along with them. Just as
a winemaker is not simply a producer but a nurturer a wine is fully known only through an
encounter among a group of drinkers in a specific place and time. Wine is not an object to
analyze but an experience to make creatively opening up new perceptual possibilities for
settings cuisines and companions.
