Wine scent part 1

In a modern world with expiration dates and food controls, a keen sense of smell is not as important as it used to be; it's not often that we have to sniff out whether a food item is dangerous to us or not - perhaps with the exception of that milk in the fridge that you're not quite sure when you opened.

But the food we eat is still to some extent crucial to our health, and wine is no exception, a good food experience is not only healthy for your body, but also to a large extent for your soul. By sharpening our sense of smell, we find it easier to distinguish what we like and why.

A little reminder before we begin:

Some people think that a wine tasting should be a very complex process, where it's about putting as many nice words as possible on what's in the glass - are you also tired of platitudes like "elegant late summer citrus notes, with a subtle finish of candied apples and fresh sawdust", then follow along here and learn how to easily and unpretentiously learn to smell your wine - it will take your next wine experience to unimaginable heights.

Wine will change the way you experience food

A well-trained nose and palate require practice. Some may be naturally endowed with a particularly sensitive nose, but the vast majority of us have to work for it - fortunately, the practice is precisely so that it doesn't feel like work, you should enjoy all the new scent impressions you get, while enjoying a glass of wine - something that is rarely boring.

All it takes to improve your nose are some small changes in your drinking habits.

How to do it:

1. Use your nose

The next time you drink or eat something (it doesn't have to be wine), take a second or two to smell it. Start separating the taste (sour, salty, sweet, bitter) from the aroma (the much more complex scents). Building a mental library of real-world aromas makes it easier to identify the many nuances in a glass of wine.
When you start to notice aromas from the world of food, your senses will be heightened and you will have an easier time recognizing the same scent in a wine.

An aroma kit is a great help when training your nose. In this guide to wine tasting you can see how to make your own aroma kit .

2. Slow down

Whether you're eating or drinking, take your time; slow down, pay attention. Your sense of taste is in your mouth, so the longer the wine is allowed to move around in your mouth, the better you'll taste it. Make sure to swirl the wine around in your mouth the first time you taste it, don't be afraid to suck air into your mouth, making slurping noises - it's a natural part of tasting your wine. It's also a good idea to drink more slowly, taking a break between each sip. Once the bottle is opened, the wine will develop, and the last glass may very well be a completely different experience than the first.

3. Visualize your experience

No, you haven't come to a mindfulness course; when we say visualize, you just close your eyes and forget that you're holding a glass of wine. What can you smell? And how would you describe the smell if you didn't know it was wine?
This is where your imagination comes into play. When we try to keep wine out of our minds, a new world of scents and impressions opens up: suddenly a glass of wine becomes a walk through an apple orchard or a warm cherry sauce simmering on the stove. When your imagination is allowed to work, you will also begin to notice more of the wine's fleeting scent notes and find it easier to describe them and, above all, recognize them the next time you encounter them.

4. Taste the wines in 'flights'

It can be difficult to find the subtle nuances in a wine when tasting it alone. If you taste a series of different wines, you will be able to pick up on the differences more quickly and easily (this is often called a 'flight' - a series of different wines). A comparative tasting of, for example, Pinot Noir, Malbec and Syrah, will improve your ability to identify the unique characteristics of each grape.
When you taste wines in series, it will also fill your mental wine dictionary with words and terms; tasted alone, it may be difficult to describe the taste of Pinot Noir as 'red fruits', but tasted together with full-bodied Malbec, with lots of 'purple fruit', you get a perspective that helps you describe the differences between the two grapes.

5. Be yourself

No, we are still not a self-development course, but when you taste wine it is important to remember that it is your own opinion that counts and no one else's. Some may be nervous about using the 'right' words when describing a wine, but no description is wrong as long as it covers your experience of the wine. Every single glass of wine contains enormous amounts of aroma particles; how they are experienced and described will always be different from person to person. There is no description that is more correct than others, what you experience as 'dark cherries' I might describe as 'fresh raspberries', while a 3rd person would call it 'ripe plums' and every answer is correct - it is your experience of the wine that counts.

This concludes the first part of our guide. Try the advice the next time you open a bottle of wine, start small; try smelling something new every day. Before long, you will not only have expanded your aromatic horizons, your nose will also become more sensitive.

The second part of our guide will follow in a week's time, where we will review different 'flights' - series of wines that you can taste and thus become better at distinguishing the differences.

Cheers!