hear the sceptic say it is merely the alcohol carrying the fragrance straight to his poor soft brain. A kinder (and more scientific) explanation is that the olfactory nerves in the brain – the ones that perceive smells – are immediate neighbours to the memory lobe. Whatever the physical reason, men and women of culture and intellect have prized wine above all other foods, and other stimulants too, since the era of prehistory, when it first emerged on the slopes of Mount Ararat.
