Affect on palate of giving up sugar/smoking/etc?

[DJ]

About a year ago I gave up sugar in my tea and I seem to be giving up sugar in coffee, I wondered whether it was having an affect on the way I taste wine

I've never smoked but surely that must make a difference. I wondered whether wines like earlier Grange could be so briary and tanninic because Max Schubert and most of his generation smoked. Wouldn't tar and smoke increase tannin tolerance?

The Robert Parker / American palate seems to be into fruit bombs. Is this affected by the huge quantity of sugary soft drinks consumed in the US? There was an article in the New York Times online a couple weeks ago discussing the huge increase in calories via this source over the last few years.

Part of this question emerged from opening a few bottles of Noon's lately and not getting as much enjoyment as expected. Why do our tastes in wine change? Is it just trying new things or getting tired of the same thing all the time? Or do other factors make a difference?

Any thoughts - or just a Saturday afternoon ramble from me?

[naomi]

I definitely think both smoking and a high sugar diet affect people's tastes in wine. I have never smoked, but I have had ex smokers tell me that their tastes have changed after they quit - mostly in the tannin / hardness spectrum.
I have a few friends who guzzle down the soft drink, and they cannot handle any wine drier than Brown brothers Spaetlese Lexia. I, on the other hand, wasn't allowed soft drinks as a kid, and now can't drink them because I find them sickly sweet. It's what you are used to I think.

[Gianna]

DJ,

probably just a saturday afternoon ramble, but based upon some reasonable assumptions / facts.

There is no question that smoking affects ones tastes buds and hence the enjoyment of styles of wine. The assumption about Shubert is not unreasonable as too your point about soft drinks and sweet tastes.

In the end however, I think our tastes in wines varies so much over time due to the "variety is the spice of life" principal. We just get bored with the same old things.

Or is this just sunday afternoon ramble from me......