* Have you ever wondered how wine professionals can smell and taste a wine and then name the aromas and flavors?* Why does anyone need to know the aromas and flavors in a wine anyway?* How can a person learn how to detect aromas and flavors in wine?These were definitely questions I had prior to my training, and I’m sure others have these questions too. I hope the tips I’ve given here will help those of you who want to learn more about how to pick aromas and flavors out of the wine.After going through the rigorous training to become a Certified Sommelier at the Professional Culinary Institute & Court of Master Sommeliers, I now realize and believe that everyone can learn to detect aromas and flavors in wine. However, it does take lots and lots of practice and repetition. Believe me, I was no better at it than anyone else, and I still practice very frequently so that I won’t forget. After tasting and analyzing 8-10 wine samples a day, Monday through Friday for 55 days, I eventually learned how to pick out the aromas and flavors in wine along with my 20 classmates. What an enlightening experience and fun adventure! It has broadened my palate and introduced me to global wines and grapes I’ve never tasted, much less heard of.I want to demystify the stereotype that picking out aromas and flavors is a skill only used by wine experts to show off. It’s a skill that wine industry professionals need to learn. There is a very practical reason for learning how to detect and describe aromas and flavors in wines, especially those in wine service. It is for wine and food pairing. So, if one knows and understand the typical aromas and flavors that are present in a particular wine or wine style, then one will have a greater chance at figuring out what kind of food or dish to pair or contrast it with. People in the wine service industry, chefs, and the like, work to learn the skill of picking out aromas and flavors in wine so they can help answer the common question that customers ask at restaurants: “what wine will go with what I’m having?”Enjoyment of wine is for everyone and the more you learn about aromas and flavors, the better you will also be at pairing wines with food whether you are cooking at home or eating out. When dining at a restaurant, don’t be afraid to ask your server to help pick a wine that will go with what you ordered. If your server doesn’t know, they should refer you to or ask someone else on the staff that does know. I realize not all restaurants have a resident sommelier, wine knowledgeable staff or wine expert. So, if you learn a little something about the aromas and flavors that appear in wine and practice smelling and tasting wine yourself, you will also help improve your chances of matching wine with food in the situation where the staff at the restaurant cannot help you.How do you learn to pick out aromas and flavors in wine? Here are lots of tips I picked up from my training and have explained to many of my clients as I am guiding them through my private wine tasting experiences:* First of all, scientific studies have shown that a major percentage of what we perceive as taste, is actually smell. Some experts say 70-75%, others say 80-90%. Either way, it’s a very large percentage. Your taste buds can only detect bitter, salty, sweet, sour and now umami flavors, but it’s your nose that knows! Have you ever lost your taste when your nose is congested? Even if you don’t have a cold, all you need to do is plug your nose while eating and you’ll get the same experience – reduced taste.* Some people have very few taste buds & some have lots more. The difference will affect what you like and don’t like in food and beverages including wine. Check out this San Francisco Chronicle article about taste buds. Also, here’s a fun little online taste survey at TasteSQ.com (aka YumYuk.com) also mentioned in the article that can help you identify your taste profile.* As you are smelling and tasting wine, think of the many aromas/smells you have encountered in your own life. Everyone has had different life experiences so everyone will perceive different aromas and flavors in wine. Here’s a drastic example, but it proves my point: if a person grew up on a farm/ranch and was surrounded by dirt, animals, barnyard, etc. for part or most of their life, that person will probably be able to detect the so called “barnyard” aroma much easier than a person who lives or lived in a big city. The “barnyard” aroma in wine can be an indication of a flaw or defect in wine. One person may be able to smell it and another may not. There’s no right or wrong in what you smell or taste but there are certain common aromas and flavors you can learn about through this aroma chart I like at Vinography.com or this aroma wheel by Regal Wine Company.* Smell Spices – Sweet & Savory: Open jars of seasonings and spices you have in your kitchen cabinet, and smell all of them, especially black pepper, white pepper, red pepper; savory herbs like oregano, thyme, rosemary, mint; sweet spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves. These appear in wine frequently. Inhaling these aromas will help you identify spice aromas and flavors in wine.* Smell Vanilla Beans & Extract: Open a bottle of extract from your collection of baking spices, or break open a vanilla bean if you happen to have one, and inhale the intoxicating vanilla aroma. This aroma appears very frequently in wine that has been aged in certain types of oak, namely French Oak.* Smell & Taste Nuts: the aromas of almond, walnut and hazelnut can appear in wine. Some examples of wines that can have nutty aromas are sweet dessert wines, fortified wines, sherry, port, madeira, and even still wines. Nuts don’t always have a pungent aroma so it helps to taste them instead of just smelling them.* Smell & Taste Fruit – Fresh & Canned: Next time you eat fresh fruit, savor the taste and smell the aromas of the fruit before it’s cut, after it’s cut and as you’re eating them. If you are eating canned fruit, do the same because many sweeter wines do exhibit the aroma of canned fruit in syrup. Common fruit aromas in wine are red cherry, black cherry, raspberry, currant, cranberry, blackberry, blueberry, cassis, apple, pear, peach, apricot, lemon, lime, pineapple, mango, melons. Inhaling these aromas will help you identify fruit aromas and flavors in wine.* Smell & Taste Vegetables – Raw & Cooked: As you are preparing, cutting or eating fresh raw and/or cooked vegetables, savor and smell those aromas. Again, these do show up in wine and the more common ones you hear of and read are: red or green bell pepper, jalepeno pepper, asparagus. Inhaling these aromas will help you identify vegetal and grassy aromas and flavors in wine.* Smell & Taste Mushrooms and/or Truffles: when you are preparing edible mushrooms for dishes, smell and taste them raw and cooked. If you have the opportunity, smell and taste truffle oil. Truffles are quite expensive, so it’s not an everyday food item. However, if you really want to smell truffles, try truffle oil which is more accessible and can now be found at some grocery stores or gourmet food merchants. Truffles are definitely an acquired taste and smell. The smell of mushrooms or truffles can appear in wine.* Smell The Great Outdoors – Dirt, Rocks, Leaves, Flowers: As your are working in your yard or garden, smell wet and dry dirt, wet and dry rocks/gravel/slate; smell wet, dry and cut leaves and grass; smell the broken stems or branches of flowers, plants and tree; smell any flowers you have; smell decomposing (composting) organic material. Possible floral aromas in wine are flowers like: roses, violets, honeysuckle. I have even smelled gardenia, jasmine and freesia in wines like Viognier. Inhaling these natural aromas will help you identify earth, mineral and floral aromas and flavors in wine.* Smell Wood – Burnt & Charred: Because lots of wines are aged in oak casks or barrels, certain wood aromas also appear in wine and comes across as the smell of smoke, ash, burnt wood, charred wood and also cedar. Next time, you light a fire in the fireplace, using your barbeque/BBQ pit, or you have a campfire going, take in that aroma and remember them as aromas that will appear in wine. Inhaling these aromas will help you identify whether oak was used and how much oak was used in production of the wine.* Smell Leather & Suede: If you own anything that is leather or suede like a piece of clothing or furniture, smell it because this aroma comes up in wine. Is it new, old or worn leather or suede?* Smell or try to recall other unusual aromas you’ve encountered: Sometimes, believe it or not, unusual chemical aromas can appear in wine such as aromas of rubber, petroleum, sulfur or burnt match, gasoline, natural gas, plastic, vinyl, tar, wet wool/wet fur/wet dog, garlic, skunk, or cabbage. It’s not necessarily an indication of quality or a defect but it can be.As you pause in your life to smell these types of aromas around you, as you are savoring your wine, you too will start to notice that there are indeed lots of aromas and flavors in wine that you have smelled and tasted before.
