Wine & the Mind An International Symposium

You taste with your mouth and smell with your nose-or do you? Could it be instead that it's all in your mind?

How is it that this wonderful sensory world of tastes and smells arises from the activity of nerve cells in your brain?

This fascinating conference invites scientists and the interested public to discuss how humans recognize, perceive and respond to tastes, odors and chemical irritants, specifically those of food, wine and spirits.

We will focus on how information about the chemical nature of food and wine is transformed into electrical signals, how these are transmitted to and processed in the brain and, how they influence our emotions.

Have you ever questioned whether wine experts really taste the distinctions they talk about, and have you wondered if you might be able to learn to do the same? Is the ability to notice subtleties of flavour an inborn trait, or can it be nurtured by expert training? Might it be possible to train one's sensory abilities to distinguish tastes and smells with greater sensitivity and clarity? Questions like these are especially important to anyone interested in learning about wine.

No scientific background or knowledge is required to enjoy this exciting conference on wine and the brain. Fourteen internationally-renowned scientists and food professionals from Europe and USA will present their findings in comprehensible language, supplemented with a guided wine tasting.

This symposium will surely provide any wine lover with mental stimulation and food for thought!

PROGRAM

Day 1 - Saturday, May 14, 2005

8:30 - 9:00 a.m.	Coffee
9:00 - 9:15	Greetings: Peter Marks, M.W., Curator of Wine, COPIA Dr. Dario Cartabellotta, Assessorato all'Agricoltura e Foreste - Regione Sicilia, Palermo, Italy Roberto Falaschi, Italian Consul, San Francisco, CA
9:15 - 9:50	Keynote: training the brain for greater pleasure Prof. Edward G. Jones, University of California, Davis, CA
9:50 - 10:15	Your brain: an introduction Prof. Jürgen K. Mai, H.-Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany
10:15 - 10:45	Taste: from the mouth to the brain Prof. Thomas Pritchard, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA
10:45 - 11:00	Break
11:00 - 11:30	Smell: from the nose to the brain Prof. Joel L. Price, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
11:30 - 12:00	Emotion and the senses Prof. Edmund T. Rolls, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
12:00 - 1:30 p.m.	Box lunch in the gardens
1:30 - 1:45	Greetings/Intro for the afternoon: Dr. Luigi Amadio, Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy
1:45 - 2:15	Taste: nature or nurture? Prof. Linda Bartoshuk, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT
2:15 - 2:45	Wine: describing the indescribable Prof. A.C. Noble (retired), University of California, Davis, CA
2:45 - 3:15	The brain of the wine expert: a groundbreaking study Dr. Emiliano Macaluso, Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy.
3:15 - 3:30	Break
3:30 - 4:00	Sicilian wine: tradition, terroir and taste: how they create quality, structure and flavour Prof. Trapani, Politecnico Palermo, Italy
4:00 - 4:30	An opportunity to train your brain: Sicilian wine and California Italian varietals, tradition, terroir, and taste Peter Marks, COPIA and Prof. Trapani Two wine experts discuss the similarities and differences they detect in wines made from similar or identical grapes grown in Sicily and in California
4.30 - 5:30	Roundtable discussion/Q&A Chairman: Prof. Mangun, Director Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, CA -Plasticity of our hedonistic senses -Can one learn to refine taste and smell through exercise? -The flavour of the Mediterranean diet: What makes it world famous? -How the senses can be fooled -Preference trends in tastes and smells
5:30 - 7:00	Wine tasting reception

Day 2 - Sunday, May 15, 2005

Morning activities are included in the Symposium fee.
Additional charge for afternoon wine tasting, ticketed separately.

10:30 - 11:10 and 11:20 - 12:00	Stroll the Wine Gardens Interactive tours See and smell the connections between wine varietals and garden flowers, produce and herbs that describe and compliment them. Enjoy the sensory experiences of wine and food pairings, smelling stations, and guided tastings set in COPIA's Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates Red Wine Garden and Maggetti White Wine Garden. Note: space is limited. Participants will be assigned to a group.
10:30 - 11:10 and 11:20 - 12:00	Sampling Sicilian Wine and Food Guided tastings The rich aromas of Sicily will captivate and enliven as we sample the wines and the foods that come from this island paradise. Known for unusual grapes such as Nero d'Avola and Cattaratta and exotic wines like Marsala and Moscato di Pantelleria, the region owes as much of its cuisine to North Africa and the Levant as it does to Rome. Enjoy 4 wines and a variety of food tastes as COPIA goes Sicilian. Note: space is limited. Participants will be assigned to a group.
Afternoon (ticketed separately)	Wine tasting in Napa Valley Exclusive visits and tastings at Napa Valley wineries not normally open to the public. (Wineries to be announced.) Space is limited to 45 attendees. Transportation provided.

Registration
www.copia.org

Day 1 and Day 2 (morning):
General: $125
Group Rate: $115
COPIA Members: $100

Sunday Wine Tour:
$35 per person

Day 1 & 2 and Sunday Wine Tour:
General: $160
COPIA members: $135

Scientific coordinator:
Prof. Jürgen K. Mai, Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Düsseldorf, Germany

Organizers:
COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts, Napa, USA
The Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, UC Davis, USA
ThreeBee Group, Rome, Italy

Supported by:
Assessorato all`Agricoltura e Foreste - Regione Sicilia, Italy
Center for the Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis; USA
Center for the Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, USA
Centro for the Viticulture and Enology, University of California, Davis; USA
Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy
Enoteca Italiana, Siena, Italy
Italian Consulate, San Francisco
The Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, University of California, Davis, USA

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