Before sitting down to dinner or buying a bottle at the wine shop, must we get our tongues dyed blue to determine what kind of taster we are and therefore what kind of wine to buy?

I read one report saying that if you cut a small hole in a piece of cardboard, you could hold it against your tongue and count the visible taste buds. Does that work, I wondered?

"You need a strong magnifying glass and also need to know what you are looking for," said Tim Hanni, creator of the budometer. "We do not want to forward the idea this is necessary in any way, but people find it fascinating. The correlations to coffee preferences, salt, etc., are extremely simple and work."

Hanni divides everyone into hypersensitive, sensitive and tolerant categories. He includes a fourth category for people who have a sweet tooth. The number of taste buds you have determines your sensitivity to different tastes in foods and beverages. It stays roughly the same throughout your life, but over time, preferences change due to positive and negative life experiences you associate with sensations.

Here are some characteristics of different types of tasters, according to Tim Hanni.



Hypersensitive tasters

• Have the most taste buds.

• Two-thirds are female.

• Love salt.

• Prefer coffee with cream and sugar.

• Detect a bitter taste from artificial sweeteners.

• Rarely acquire a taste for Scotch and Cognac.

• Frequently say tastes like gasoline.

• Prefer lighter, more delicate and often sweet wines.

Wines to try:

• Dry and off-dry rosés

• Whites: Dry and slightly sweet Rieslings, German, Alsatian and Austrian wines. Chardonnays from France or Chile, and unoaked or more delicate chardonnays from Australia, New Zealand and the U.S.A.

Reds: Traditionally styled pinot noir from New Zealand, the U.S.A. and France. Lower alcohol red zinfandel. Lighter intensity French, Italian and Spanish reds.



Sensitive tasters

• Have slightly fewer taste buds.

• Women also dominate this category.

• Prefer a touch of cream or sugar in coffee.

• Likes salt.

• Open to a wider range of taste experiences than the other two categories.

• Tend to favor wines with delicate flavors, lower alcohol and often sweetness.

Wines to try:

• Dry rosés

• Whites: Sauvignon blanc and blends from the U.S.A. and Chile. Rich, smooth chardonnays from the U.S.A. and Australia. Viognier. Rich-styled wines form Alsace.

• Reds: Shiraz, syrah and Rhone blends. Merlot and merlot blends. Rich-style pinot noir. Red zinfandel. More modern-style French, Italian, and Spanish reds.



Tolerant tasters

• Have the fewest taste buds.

• Prefers dark roast coffee that's strong and black. Rarely adds cream or sugar.

• Typically doesn't add salt to prepared foods.

• Perceives alcohol as sweet.

• Can tolerate spirits and higher-alcohol wines with strong flavors.

• Demands intensity of flavor.

• More tolerant tasters tend to favor wines with intensity, higher alcohol and more oak aging.



Wines to try

Whites: Reserve-style chardonnays from around the world. Rhone-style whites. But generally, tolerant tasters would rather drink red wine.

Reds: Cabernet sauvignon and blends. Rhone and Rhone-style blends. Old-vine zinfandels. Brunellos, super Tuscan, barolo, and amarone from Italy. Intensely flavored reds from France, Spain and South Africa.



Sweet tasters

• More than likely a hypersensitive or sensitive taster who prefers sweeter wines.

• Sensitive to bitterness and alcohol.

• Like fresh, fruity flavors.

Wines to try: White zinfandel, sweeter moscato wines from the U.S.A. and Italy, sweet rieslings, lambrusco, fruit-flavored wines.

Try taking the test yourself at www.budometer.com. All this information is available on that Web site. Hanni says the test offered there is a simplified version that works best for people who are "confused, overwhelmed or befuddled by wine," which is probably most of us.

What kind of taster are you?

Rod Byers is director of marketing at Nevada City Winery, a CSW-certified wine educator, teaches wine classes at Sierra College and is a California state-certified wine judge. He can be reached at wineonpine@sbcglobal.net or 913-3703.