Your sense of smell is by far your biggest asset when assessing wine. Food scientists have identified over 200 aromas in wine; your tongue can identify 4 main flavour groups (sweet, salty, bitter and sour) while your nose is able to comprehend well over 10,000 aromas.

What to do:

1. Pickup the glass by the stem
2. Swirl it 3 times
   (increases the surface area and removes any old evaporating vapors from the glass’ bowl)
3. Put your nose deep into the glass and inhale gently for 2-3 seconds
   (for some, 3 one-second bursts works nicely)
4. Identify and take note of some aromas
   (these may change as the wine opens [or warms] up)

What we’re Smelling for:

1. Intensity
   • Mild
   • Moderate
   • Aggressive
2. Aromas
   • Fruity
   • Spicy
   • Floral
   • Vegetative
   • Earthy
   • Woody
   • Nutty
   • Caramelized
   • Chemical
3. Flaws
   • Sour
   • Moldy
   • Cork Taint
   • Oxidized
   • Vinegar
   • Sulfide
   • Brett

Aroma vs Bouquet

The terms Aroma and Bouquet are often used interchangeably but there’s a distinction between the two:

· Aroma is used to describe the one-dimensional smells that make themselves very apparent on the first few sniffs.

· Bouquet is used to describe layers of aromas perceived in the wine. The wine’s bouquet does not develop until after fermentation.

Practice makes perfect

A professional taster is continually adding to his or her smell vocabulary. Remember, you can’t identify a smell if you’ve never experienced that smell before. Use our About Grapes page for help on identifying some of the aromatic characteristics of the varietal you’re accessing.

Tips:

· Give your nose a break when smelling a variety of wines or the same wine over and over. Your sense of smell can become ‘tired’ just like a muscle.

· If the bottle’s label indicates an aroma but you just can’t pinpoint it, the aroma may no longer be present. If the wine is a few years old, so is the label. The wine matured, the label did not.

· Don’t try and smell a wine while in a kitchen full of other aromas. Try to be in a neutral place.

· Avoid wearing perfume or cologne

• How to Identify a Great Wine
• How to Taste Wine
• How to Look at Wine