Science says drinking wine might make you smarter, so go ahead and buy that bottle

Good news, wine lovers! Science says drinking wine might make you smarter, reported Brit + Co, so go ahead and buy that bottle. We know — what?!?! We’ve talked about the health benefits of drinking Champagne before. And we’ve also told you all about drinking diet wine, aka skinny Prosecco. However, good old-fashioned wine is another story!

The flavor of wine "engages more of our brain than any other human behavior, said Yale neuroscientist Gordon Shepherd, author of Neuroenology: How the Brain Creates the Taste of Wine, reported NPR.

Think about that — more than any other human behavior.

"The molecules in wine don't have taste or flavor, but when they stimulate our brains, the brain creates flavor the same way it creates color," Shepherd said. "You don't just put wine in your mouth and leave it there. You move it about and then swallow it, which is a very complex motor act…It's a very active process. So to understand the physiology of tasting wine, it's necessary to give people a whole new context of how wine sensing and wine tasting takes place."

Suffice it to say, so many different senses are at work — from sniffing wine to consuming it.

Sold! As for wine-drinking tips — in case you need some! — Shepherd suggests taking small sips instead of large ones, so you don’t saturate your system. He also told NPR that he prefers drinking European ones, as they have a slightly lower alcohol content, and that alcohol content is going up lately due to global warming, not down. Interesting!

Of course, this doesn’t mean drinking an excess amount — everything in moderation, right?

But it’s definitely good to know that we may be getting smarter when we have a glass of wine with dinner or at Happy Hour after work. We’ll drink to that!