Drinking wine is always a great and pleasurable experience for me because, like most people, I drink what I like. If I’m drinking other wine in a social context, even if I’m not fond of a wine being served it’s certainly informative but quite often I am introduced to great discoveries that someone else already knew about and is sharing with me. I have really spectacular wine friends, I’m not kidding.

Tasting wine, however, and critically evaluating a number of wines in a single setting can be arduous and demanding because of the human interaction with wine chemistry – namely the palate vs. tannins, acidity, alcohol and fruit. If you’ve ever attended a medium-to-large wine event, you know what I’m talking about: wine is lined up for days and after tasting as few as three or four big reds or young wines you find yourself seeking water in a futile attempt to dial back what’s happening in your mouth. 

Although the advance of technology can be questionable in many genres, some are pure genius. Enter the fortuitous relationship forged by a couple of Cal Poly (California Polytechnic State University) students, Nicole Chamberlain and Andrew Macaluso. Both studied other disciplines at this esteemed university including biology (Nicole) and chemistry (Andrew) but ended up with degrees in wine, viticulture and enology. In the course of their education in winemaking, they realized that winemakers often taste dozens of barrel samples to keep on top of the winemaking process, but this can be a very challenging thing to do because of this little thing we know of as palate fatigue. With this combination of brainpower, these two set out on a mission to create a substance that resets the palate. Does it work?

SanTásti is the greatest single invention for wine since oak barrels. Even better actually; you can overuse oak easily, but you can’t overuse this remarkable product. It absolutely resets your palate to zero. It perfectly neutralizes tannins, acidity, and aftertastes from the biggest wines available. It even flat-lines the palate after food. And it’s not just me. So far I have shared this with about a dozen enophiles, collectors and deeply experienced wine people and every one of them had the same experience. SanTásti works!

The wines tasted in the photo:

1995 Andre Clouet, Champagne - France

2007 Brewer Clifton, Santa Rita Hills, Chardonnay – Santa Barbara, California

2007 Landmark, Kanzler Vineyard, Pinot Noir – Sonoma Coast, California

2004 Pio Cesare, Barolo, Piedmont, Italy

2005 Pio Cesare, Barolo, Piedmont, Italy

2006 Andrew Will, Sorella, Horse Heaven Hills (a blend using Bordeaux varietals), Washington

2004 Floresta, Colchagua Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon – Chile

2006 Caymus Special Selection, Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley, California

2006 Pierre Gaillard, Les Pierres, St Joseph – Northern Rhone, France

2005 Two Hands, Ares, Barossa Valley – Australia

2005 Château Beaucastel, Châteauneuf du Pape – Southern Rhone, France

2003 Royal Tokaji, Tokaji Aszu 5 Puttonyos - Hungary

If you know wine much you will recognize that this was a ridiculously great wine event, hosted by Mirabelle Restaurant’s owner and savant wine guru, Michael Vilim. All wine tasted that evening ranged from 91 to 98 points from Wine Spectator and Robert Parker. There was a beautiful selection of delicate, nuanced white, Pinot Noir and Champagne wine all the way up to huge, tannic, too young to drink now reds. There could not have been a better lineup of wine to have with SanTásti, which worked flawlessly when I went back and forth. Really, this bevy of wine was like The Beauty and the Beast although eventually everything here will certainly become a Beauty if it’s not already.

I hope to impress on you, that if you have ever wished that you could recalibrate your taste buds, this is the way to do it. I do not work for this company nor do I have a financial interest in this company but I think this is an amazing product for wine lovers. You can order their water for the palate at http://www.santasti.com/ and unlike shipping wine, water can be shipped anywhere. SanTásti might just do for the wine world, what the Internet did for the rest of the world. It’s that important.

David Boyer

Photo at Mirabelle Restaurant, Austin: The Awesome Victoria Boyer