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How do you judge the smell of wine?
Smell is used to judge the wine's aromas, i.e. their purity, intensity, expression and complexity. The questions are therefore:
- Is the aroma clear and free of off-flavours? (Purity)
- How strong is the odour? (intensity)
- What does the wine smell like? (expression)
- How many flavour components can be detected and how differentiated are they? (complexity)
In order to answer the last question and thus professionally describe the aroma of the wine, the aromas must be systematised. The easiest way to do this is with the Flavour wheel. The flavours are grouped together (e.g. fruity, floral, herbal, spicy, nutty, vegetable, roasted, earthy, microbiological, chemical) and then successively broken down into individual components (e.g. walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds in the case of "nutty").
In the representation of the wheel, the flavours become finer and finer from the inside to the outside, and this is also the way to proceed when describing wine: Depending on how detailed you can perceive a scent, the flavour naming becomes more and more differentiated and concrete. Two examples:
White wine flavour description | Flavour description of red wine | |
---|---|---|
Aroma group "fruity" | Fruity | Fruit flavour |
Specification (subgroup) | yellow fruits | red fruits |
Fruit category | Pome fruit | Berries |
Single flavour | Pear | Strawberry |
Development of the fruit flavour (stage of development or treatment of the fruit) Treatment of the fruit) |
fresh / ripe / overripe / dried / preserved / candied | fresh / ripe / overripe / dried / preserved / candied |
Simple wines will only allow rather rough aroma descriptions ("dark fruit"), whereas high-quality wines will allow very sophisticated ones ("partially dried blackcurrants and preserved blackberries").
It takes a well-trained sense of smell and a good memory to perceive a fragrance in all its facets and to name the individual components. A simple basic rule applies: you can only identify something that you know. For example, if you don't know what a banana smells like, you won't be able to recognise and name this aroma in a wine that smells of banana. However, anyone can distinguish between the broad aroma groups inside the aroma wheel (see above), and to get an idea of what a wine smells like, it is enough to describe it as "fruity", "floral" or "spicy". How you can train your sensory skills is described in detail in the corresponding entry for beginners: How do you train your senses?
Specific flavour wheels for white and red wines can be ordered from the German Wine Institute(shop.deutscheweine.de).