Get to know your wine aromas

Jason Clarke, Contributor

A delicate scent rising, invading your nostrils and sending intense signals to the brain to create an 'aha' moment is part of the experience when enjoying a glass of wine. Each wine has its own aromas or what the wine gurus call the nose. We have the capacity to identify well over 2,000 unique smells effortlessly, and our sense of smell is very critical to what informs your taste. Remember, the tongue is only able to identify sweet, sour, salty, and bitter, but it's your sense of smell that gives you the full experience of ripe, fresh strawberries.

Whatever bottle of wine you open, pour... swirl... and smell, it at least three times. Each time you put your nose to the glass to inhale, it should be more revealing than the last.

When you think of white wines, scents most commonly associated with it tend to resemble white or lighter-flesh fruits.

Chardonnay - pear, apple, apricot, vanilla, lemon, pineapple, tropical fruit, or honey.

Savignon Blanc - grass, herbs.

Interestingly, red wines tend to have scents more resembling dark fruits and, often times, these choice varietals resemble:

Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot: blackberry, raspberry, cherry, plum, black current, chocolate, coffee, tea, tobacco, or smoke.

Pinot Noir: raspberry, strawberry, cranberry, violet, rose.

There are a plethora of aromas that one can detect from wine, particularly as you change from one varietal to the next, but, generally, all pleasant. But every now and again, you may open a bottle, and something hits you that makes your skin crawl. Maybe the scent of rotten eggs or wet newspaper. If it's deeply unpleasant, I think it's something you should definitely dump.

Let's conduct an experiment. Pick a bottle you enjoy the most, and really smell the wine and let me know your findings.

I am not an expert, merely a wine enthusiast sharing my thoughts and experiences. Feel free to share your own experiences at wineenthusiastja@gmail.com.