Savor That Wine Aroma
Breathe Deep And Enjoy

Wine aroma. Wine bouquet. Wine nose. Descriptions all the same but the smells all different. Pour your glass of wine and sniff the aroma. You may be surprised at what you may smell. As you will see below, wine can smell like so many things. Sometimes all at once. And many of those aromas are not a part of the wine. For example, a zinfandel can smell like pepper but it is not made with pepper (I hope not).

A word on semantics. As you may have guessed, wine aroma, smell, nose, and bouquet are all synonymous. Wine lovers tend to avoid the word smell as a noun since the other descriptions sound better.

Besides, it cool to talk the lingo.

You’re still not quite ready to taste the wine. But we’re getting there. One of the reasons we do all that swirling is to smell all the those tantalizing aromas. So, give the wine a good swirl. Hold the glass by the stem and rotate it in your hand. Don’t get too carried away and spill it. Spilt wine is a sacrilege. Do that and you may have to lick it off the floor.

Next, bring the glass all the way up to your nose. Don’t be shy. Do it just like the cat at the right. Sniff the wine and note the nose. What do you smell? Depending on the wine, here is what you can expect:

• Fruits such as pineapples, grapefruit, peaches, pears, apples, cherries, blackcurrants, plums, blackberries
• Vegetables such as celery, asparagus, olives
• Herbs such as thyme, sage, lavender
• Spices such as pepper, cloves, licorice, cinnamon
• Florals such as roses, violets, blossoms
• Toasted flavors such as nuts, butter, vanilla, chocolate, coffee, tobacco, caramel
• Earthy such as leather, dirt, barnyard, petroleum, mineral

  A word on the earthy smells (no, aroma or bouquet don’t seem to apply here). They smell this way due to the soil that the grapes are grown in. While the smell can be gross, the wine itself will not be. So try it anyway.

By varietal

• Chardonnays will smell like grass or apples or lemons or buttery
• Rieslings will smell like lime or blossoms or honey or citrus
• Sauvignon blancs will smell like grass or limes or grapefruit or asparagus
• Chenin blancs will smell like melons or honey
• Viogniers will smell like apricots or peaches or wood
• Pinot grigios will smell like citrus or pine
• Gewürztraminers will smell fruity or like roses or grapefruit
• Cabernets will smell like blackcurrants or cedar or peppery or earthy
• Merlots will smell like plums or blackcurrants or black cherries
• Pinot noirs will smell like cherries or raspberry or tobacco or spicy
• Syrahs/shirazes will smell like plums or blackberries or spices
• Zinfandels will smell jammy or peppery
• Sangiovese will smell like cherries or raisins or violets or earthy
• Beaujolais (Gamay grape) will smell like strawberries or raspberries
• Nebbiolos will smell like raspberries or plums or earthy
• Tempranillos will smell leathery or spicy or like cherries
• Malbecs will smell like raspberries or chocolate or spicy

After the first sniff, give your nose a rest. Then swirl and sniff again. You may note something different.

Keep in mind that there is no right or wrong in all this. Different noses will detect different noses.

As you see, there is something for everyone. If you learn what all these aromas are like, you will be a blind tasting pro.

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