Sounding sweet

Establishing the essence of what sounds match sweetness in wine remains a sticky issue

“Honey-sweet tones” is the how the ancient Greek poet Homer evoked the voices of the Sirens in his Odyssey.  Several thousand years later, in his Ode on a Grecian Urn the Romantic poet John Keats declared “heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter. Therefore, ye soft pipes, play on”. Sweetness has a long tradition of being linked to music, but now studies – including my own with wine - are endeavouring to discover just what that music might sound like.