How Altitude Affects the Way You Taste Wine

How Altitude Affects the Way You Taste Wine

If you’ve ever cracked open a bottle of wine at your place in the mountains and thought “huh, this tastes different than it did at sea level,” you’re not imagining things! Altitude actually does change the way we perceive wine, and living up here in the Vail Valley, it’s something we think about a lot at Boone’s.

Wait, Altitude Changes How Wine Tastes?

Yep! It’s not the wine itself that’s changing (unless it’s been sitting up here aging, which is a whole different topic), it’s how your body processes and perceives flavor and alcohol at higher elevation. A handful of things are working against you up here, and once you know what they are, you can plan around them.

Your Taste Buds Get a Little Lazy

At higher altitudes, the air is thinner and drier, which affects your senses more than people realize. Your nasal passages dry out faster, and since so much of what we perceive as “taste” actually comes from smell, this can dull your perception of a wine’s aromas and flavors. Subtle notes that you’d easily pick up at sea level might feel flatter or less vibrant up here.

This is part of why bigger, bolder wines tend to perform really well in mountain towns! A wine with big fruit, noticeable tannins, and a strong aromatic profile is going to come through more clearly than something delicate and nuanced, which might taste washed out at altitude.

Alcohol Hits Different Up Here

This one’s important, especially if you’re hosting guests who just flew in from somewhere low and flat! At higher elevations, your body has less oxygen to work with, which means alcohol gets absorbed into your bloodstream a bit faster and hits you a little harder than it would at sea level.

This doesn’t mean wine is suddenly stronger, the alcohol content on the bottle is still accurate, it just means your body processes it differently up here. That’s why so many visitors say they feel a glass of wine “more” on their first night in the mountains. Combine that with dehydration from the dry air and the physical exertion of skiing or hiking all day, and you’ve got a recipe for feeling a buzz faster than you might expect.

Tips for Tasting Wine at Altitude

A few things we always tell customers, especially folks visiting from out of town:

Hydrate before you pour. Dehydration intensifies the effects of alcohol and dulls your palate even further. Drink water throughout the day, not just after the wine headache hits!

Let your wine breathe. Decanting or simply letting a glass sit for a few minutes can help open up aromas that might otherwise feel muted in our dry air.

Go bold when in doubt. If you’re unsure what to bring to a dinner up here, lean toward fuller-bodied reds or aromatic whites rather than something light and subtle. They tend to hold up better.

Pace yourself. Especially on your first day at elevation, that second glass might hit harder than it would back home. No shame in slowing down a bit!

We’ve Got You Covered at Any Elevation

Whether you’re a local who’s used to the mountain air or a visitor who just got here and is wondering why your usual go-to wine tastes a little different, our team at Boone’s knows this stuff inside and out. We live and sell wine at elevation every single day, so we can point you toward bottles that actually shine up here.

Stop in, ask us what we’d pour for a dinner at 7,000 feet, and we’ll steer you right. We’ve got over 4,700 products to choose from, and we love nothing more than helping people find a bottle that tastes amazing wherever they’re drinking it!