The enjoyment of Whiskey and Pipe-Smoking might occupy the very top spots on the list of things we humans succumb to with fine attention to the palate, as well as to the nose. The interesting thing about these perception systems of ours, is that they are not only used because we have both, but because they deliver very different experiences.
No coffee will taste as complex and fresh and magnificent as its aroma talks to our olfactory system. No cigar delivers the same quality to the palate that its smoke delivers to the nose. No mixture composed for pipe smoking will ever be as flowery, light and refreshing, as it is read by the nose before being lit.
Perhaps it has to do with what appears to me to be the purest form of perception when we consider sound, taste and smell. We do not only listen to a piano concerto in the quality that the instrument was built, not just depending on the acoustics of the space delivering the repercussion, but perceiving the music coming from the piano depends highly on the facial structure on which the waves must land before reaching our ears, and even more on the structure, lines, curves and cavities of each individual ear. The mouth and the palate hold plenty of impurities that influence greatly the taste of what we eat. And the cleanest buccal cavity will naturally produce the saliva which will strongly influence the taste of whatever we intake orally. Only the nose seems to allow entrance of these airborne volatile substances, just as they are.
