FREE online courses on Learn to Taste Wine - Scents of Wine

 

The scents of wine come from several sources. The fruity smell of young wines comes directly from the grapes, with woody and other organic aromas added if the wine was aged in oak.

 

Fine, aged wines add the most complex (and sometimes un-wine like) scents, which some wine tasters call "bouquet," as the result of gradual chemical reactions in the wine. Less pleasant changes in odor and taste occur if the wine is poorly or carelessly made or spoils with excess age.

 

Wine aromas can be divided into nine principal categories:

 

• Animal odors: smells of game, beef and venison;
• balsamic odors: smells of pine trees, resin and vanilla;
• woody odors: smells of new wood of oak barrels;
• chemical odors: smells of acetone, mercaptan (skunks or natural gas), yeasts, hydrogen sulfide (rotten eggs), lactic and fermentation odor;
• spicy odors, smells of pepper, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, truffles, anise and mint;
• empyreumatic (creosotes and oils) odors: smells of creme brulee, smoke, toast, leather and coffee;
• floral odors: smells of flowers, violets, roses, lilacs, jasmine;
• fruity odors: smells of blackcurrants, raspberries, cherries, plums, apricots, peaches, figs;
• vegetal odors: smells of herbs, tea, mushrooms and vegetables.

 

Other frequently occurring scents include apples (a characteristic of Chardonnay and Riesling grapes); green olives, green peppers, even asparagus (typical of inexpensive red wines from some cool regions); walnuts and pecans (desirable in Sherry, a flaw in wines oxidized with age); vinegar (a breath is common in Beaujolais, more than a breath is a fatal flaw in any wine); and chalk or steel (reminiscent of licking a clean pebble or knife blade, the trademark of French Chablis and some other acidic Chardonnays).

 

Young wines are usually simple and straightforward, offering uncomplicated smells of grapes and fresh fruit.