Every time I say I’m studying psychology I get a funny look. “So can you tell what I’m thinking?” Or, “I expect you find plenty of people to practise on here,” – said with a little roll of the eyeballs. It’s not really like that though. What I most wanted to know about was the science of flavour and its perception; the nature of addiction; how the brain processes smells and tastes and why they seem more closely tied to the emotions than other senses; and I wanted to understand a little bit more about appetite. One year into a four year Masters course (that is a LOT more evenings spent with an A4 notepad and a rumbly tummy in a lecture theatre) I am just at the beginning of learning all that – and so much more. Tonight I’m off for dinner at Caravan with a bunch of other students from the course. We will be celebrating the fact that three of us somehow managed to pull off firsts in the exams for all three modules from the first year. But when I stumbled on the results online yesterday (Birkbeck is many things but organised is not one of them) I couldn’t resist opening a good bottle of riesling to say Well Done to myself.
Jacob’s Creek Steingarten Riesling 2012 Australia (I see they have made the Jacob’s Creek veeeery small and faint on the label, perhaps because it makes people think of cheap supermarket wine and this is a truly spectacular wine. You don’t need to be a psychology student to work that one out.) Dry, ravagingly clear and true, like the Alps if the Alps tasted of lime rind and rose up out of the desert. Mine was a preview bottle; this is going to be in Sainsbury’s at about £16.59 in a few weeks’ time. For a good bottle of Australian riesling in the meantime, head to Tesco for the Tim Adams Riesling 2012 at about £11-12 a bottle.