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How to Make Your Own Wine Aroma Study Kit
Get better at identifying what you smell in wines. Create an inexpensive set of aroma standards using common supermarket items
When it comes to evaluating wine, your sense of smell is most important. Our ability to detect aromas is much more acute than our sense of taste, and wines contain thousands of scents and only a handful of tastes. More than 800 different aroma compounds have been identified in wines, making it perhaps the most aromatically complex food or beverage we encounter.
When describing wine, experts will often refer to aromas that include fruits such as lemon, peach and cherry; spices such as nutmeg and black pepper; vegetables or herbs such as green pepper and mint; and non-foods such as tobacco or smoke. Numerous chemical compounds are responsible for these aromas. Some compounds come from the grapes; most form during fermentation and some develop during maturation.
But what if, when you stick your nose in a glass, all you smell is … wine? How do you get better at identifying all the distinctive aromas that characterize the reds and whites you drink?
When they sniff a wine, experts activate their memory banks, comparing what’s in front of them with aromas they've experienced in the past. You can build your memory bank by carefully concentrating on the aromas you experience day to day, from the contents of your spice rack and refrigerator to the flowers and grass in your yard. You can also purchase a wine aroma kit to help you study.
But it’s easy, cheaper and even more effective to make your own set of aroma standards, using inexpensive wines and items you may already have at home or can pick up at your supermarket. You can enlist your local wine retailer to help you pick out neutral wines to serve as a base.
Once you have experienced known aroma standards in a neutral wine, you will find it easier to identify those aromas when you encounter them in more complex wines.
Supplies
- One glass for each aroma standard you plan to make
- One bottle of an inexpensive, neutral white wine such as Pinot Grigio or Colombard is enough to make 10 to 12 white wine aroma standards
- One bottle of an inexpensive, neutral red wine such as Merlot or Beaujolais is enough to make 10 to 12 red wine aroma standards
Directions
- Mark each glass so you know which aroma it will contain; write the name of each aroma on a small sticker (the removable kind are best) and label each glass.
- Pour 2 ounces or 4 tablespoons of wine into each wineglass.
- Add the indicated amount of each aroma ingredient to its own glass of wine and let it soak for an hour or so.
- After the hour is up, remove any solid ingredients.
- Swirl and sniff each glass of wine so you can become familiar with the aroma that has been added to it.
- Next, test yourself by transferring each sticker to the bottom of its glass where it can’t be read. Then shuffle the glasses. Swirl and sniff the standards. Can you identify any of them?
| White Wine Aroma |
Ingredient |
| Lemon |
A small portion of fresh lemon peel and one teaspoon lemon juice |
| Grapefruit |
A small portion of fresh grapefruit peel and one teaspoon grapefruit juice |
| Pineapple |
One teaspoon pineapple juice |
| Melon |
A chunk of ripe cantaloupe |
| Peach |
A chunk of ripe peach or one tablespoon syrup from canned peaches |
| Pear |
A chunk of ripe pear or one tablespoon syrup from canned pears |
| Green grass |
Three crushed blades of green grass |
| Honey |
One teaspoon honey (stir to dissolve) |
| Vanilla |
One drop vanilla extract |
| Nutmeg |
A pinch of freshly grated nutmeg |
| Smokey Oak |
One drop Liquid Smoke, available in many supermarket spice sections |
| Red Wine Aroma |
Ingredient |
| Strawberry |
Two crushed ripe or frozen strawberries |
| Strawberry jam |
One teaspoon of strawberry jam (stir to dissolve) |
| Cherry |
Two crushed ripe cherries or a tablespoon of juice from canned cherries |
| Mint |
One drop of mint extract or a crushed mint leaf (spearmint or peppermint) |
| Green Pepper |
A quarter of a green pepper, diced |
| Black Pepper |
A few grains of freshly ground black pepper |
| Chocolate |
One teaspoon of powdered cocoa or shaved chocolate |
| Coffee |
About 1/8 teaspoon ground coffee |
| Tobacco |
One small pinch of cigarette or pipe tobacco |
| Vanilla |
One drop vanilla extract |
| Smokey Oak |
One drop Liquid Smoke, available in many supermarket spice sections |
Member comments 3 comment(s)
A commercial aroma kit I purchased last year was a bust - only about half the vials had identifiable aromas and some were not usable for my seminars. I will try these DIY instead! What are your favorite ingredients for cassis, blackberry and plum?