Dans Le Noir?

I’m sitting in the pitch dark, my hand groping around the table. On my plate I think I’ve got some tuna - or is it chicken? - orange, fennel and yes, those are pomegranate seeds. In my heavy glass (so it doesn’t shatter if I knock it over) is what tastes like a commercial Vin de Pays d’Oc chardonnay.

Well, I’m right about the food - it is tuna - but the wine is a South African Colombard/Chardonnay, according to the manager at London’s latest eating experience Dans Le Noir? where diners eat in total darkness. It’s a strange experience, having to be guided by the (blind) waiter, take things on trust, rely on touch and hearing. (The question mark at the end of the restaurant name indicates that it may be you, not the waiter who is in the dark).

Being more used to blind tasting I feel more confident with the wine, but even that, as we all know, can play tricks. One French critic in Paris where the company originated apparently mistook his red for a white. And it’s not helped by staff themselves being somewhat vague about what they’re serving. My wine-savvy companion and I were convinced that the second wine that arrived was a new world merlot and not the Cotes du Rhone they later claimed. (They don’t tell you what you’re eating or drinking at the time). But I guess it’s easy to get bottles mixed up in the dark.

It made me realise how important senses other than taste and smell are in the enjoyment of wine. What a wine looks like sets up an expectation not only of what it will taste like but how it’s going to go with the food. Serve a red wine with a piece of lightly poached white fish and you’re braced for disappointment, past experience prompting you that this isn’t going to work. Conversely having a well established match like oysters and Chablis in front of you primes you for success.

Colour can also influence the perception of a wine and food match. A pale coloured ros with a steak is not simply a matter of taste. It doesn’t look right. Pair it with rare lamb and you feel it might be OK. The light, glinting green-gold through a glass of sauvignon blanc, together with the cool feel of the side of the glass just after the wine has been poured sets you up for a pleasurable match with a seafood salad just as much as its crisp citrussy aroma.

The French seem to be particularly into this multi-sensory approach to dining. In Lille there is a restaurant called Avec Les Doigts which dispenses with knives, forks and plates while at the French-owned Novotel West in Hammersmith the management has introduced a ‘5 senses’ tasting and dining experience as a team building exercise for companies.

“It shows how much sight overrides taste” says Isabelle Macart who leads the sessions. “For example, we give people two yoghurts - one pink and one yellow - and people think the pink one tastes of strawberry. But in fact they are both lemon-flavoured. We do a parmesan ice cream that people assume is vanilla. It gets people talking about what they are tasting and gets them to see their colleagues in a different light. Everyone experiences the world in different ways depending on their background and culture.” Macart is looking for ways to incorporate wine into the experience. “We’d like to start with the wine and then get people chosing their food.”

It’s long been known too that the colour and shape of a glass can influence one’s appreciation of the liquid inside. Pour even the finest wine into a chunky tumbler or a plastic cup and it won’t taste as good. Pour it in a glass designed to accentuate its individual character, as Riedel does, and you’ll see the wine in quite a different way. Riedel has also introduced an opaque black glass to assist sommeliers and buyers in making judgements on taste alone. “Sight is incredibly important in terms of the judgement we make about a wine” says UK managing director Steve McGraw. “If it’s dark red we decide it’s full bodied before it even passes our lips.” Temperature too can make a difference. “You can easily mistake a white rioja for a light red if it’s served at room temperature.”

And what about sound? Could the ambient noise change the way you perceive wine? Absolutely according to researchers from the University of Leicester who conducted an experiment in a wine shop, playing French and German music. On French music days 77% of the wine sold was French while 73% of sales were German when German music was played. Other experiments have shown that customers are more likely to trade up when they listen to classical music. (See www.mindhacks.com)

You also realise how much dining experience is affected by ambience, human interaction and mood. If you feel uncomfortable in a restaurant because of loud neighbours, because the sommelier puts you down or because you’re rowing with your partner it will inevitably reflect how positive you feel about the food and wine. Anything that takes you out of your comfort zone takes the relaxation factor out of meal. Wine-loving hosts underestimate the stress those ‘guess the bottle’ games cause where some guests are bound to end up looking foolish.

Could you dine in the dark at home? No reason why not so long as you deal with the inevitable hazards posed by hot food and sharp implements. It’s a surprisingly intimate experience - one which would be considerably enhanced by using top quality ingredients which I have to say Dans Le Noir’s were not and by someone talking you through what was coming. A comparative champagne and caviare tasting maybe? Bolly, Beluga and Bach. Now you’re talking . . .

Dans Le Noir? is at 30-31 Clerkenwell Green, London EC1 44 20 253 1100. To book the Novotel Five Senses experience call Isabelle Macart on 0208 237 7451

This article was first published in the September 2006 issue of Decanter

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