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Bodies may give off radiations, vibrations, effluvia from molecules and even of portions sensitive to being tasted. But they do not give off anything that may inform us of their shape, texture, weight, pressure, heat, viscosity.
To touch is to perceive the surface
properties of the object in its entirety. And to subject it to the experience of our most
touch-sensitive receptors, in particular the mucosas and the fingertips.
This is the reason why bodies with large surfaces in relation to their volume (generally rough and textured) are highly tactile and pleasant to the touch, while those with smooth, reduced surfaces are not particularly tactile and unpleasant.
Liquids have a unique touch as strictly speaking they have no surface.
To perceive a liquid we can drink it or immerse ourselves in it, and it transmits textures
of extreme sensorial subtlety. Touch is a diffuse sense, with neither emissions nor basic
or measurable sensations.
Wine induces a wide range of tactile sensations in our buccal mucosa:
Touch is the only one of our senses whose organ is not inside the head and which does not use a particular nerve to transmit information converted into impulses to the brain.
There are millions of nerve cells, located beneath the surface of the skin, able to respond to tactile stimuli.
These cells are sensitive to touch, pain, heat, cold and pressure.
Although we cannot talk of true organs of touch, the human body has two points with special sensitivity to touch: the lips and the hands.
Touch is an imprecise sense and quite unevolved, but full of nuances
with regard to sensations to be perceived.
We make up for the poor perception of our sense of touch with contributions from other more intellectualised perceptions, such as spatial, geometric and mechanical sensations.
So, to appreciate tactile sensations is somewhat contradictory and requires some quiet and concentration.
Touch is a sense that envelops us, just as the epithelium that acts as a sense organ envelops us.
It is a sense of sharpnesses and roundnesses, which brings us to the
world of the skin. Allowing us not only to touch, but to squeeze, brush, caress. Tactile
sensations are stimulating, essential for our emotional balance. From the moment we burst
in upon life, we seek a measure of the world through touch. Heat, cold, softness are
sensations that are crucial to understanding our existence.
Perhaps this is why tactile experience with liquids in general and wine in particular is a culminating and moving experience at the same time, filled with deeply-felt nuances, as if one were discovering the textures and the limits of life anew.
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