Daily(ish) Confessional: I smell flowers in my wine, am I crazy?
As it turns out, if you smell flowers in your wine, you’re anything but crazy! I know, I know, perfume smells like flowers. Flowers smell like flowers. Room deodorizer smells like flowers. But wine? Yes, indeed my friend, wine can smell like flowers!
Spring has sprung and flora and fauna are reemerging from their winter slumber. All around us, everything is blooming and the air is filled with my favorite aromas! Much to my excitement, my jasmine vine is in full bloom for the first time in 5 years! 5. Long. Years! Thus, the inspiration for this post.
If all else fails, say Jasmine
I know, I’ve confused you again. But let’s go back to the beginning. I smell flowers in my wine! While the most prominent smells in wine are typically fruit related, many varietals (both red and white) have strong herbal or floral aromas as well. Without going into great detail or speculation, experts associate these aromas to several things. First, the grape varietal itself. If you have a local grocer which stocks numerous different grapes – take a field trip and go smell them (for those of us lucky enough to have a Central Market nearby, you’ll be in grape heaven!)! Second is the influence of location, location, location – or terroir. This, too, is said to drive herbal or floral aromas in wine. I’m not a chemist or a botanist, so I’ll leave it right here. Grapes and wine can emit floral aromas!
So why Jasmine? If you’re like me, you can fairly easily detect the aroma of a rose. However, there are thousands, if not millions, of floral smells in the world and I do not have them all encyclopedically stored in my brain yet! Therefore, I’m stealing a trick from one of my wine courses – if you smell florals, but don’t know what kind, say ”Jasmine!” Are you with me? If you watched last week’s W.O.W. Wine of the Week where Chris Keel, owner of Put a Cork in It, and I covered Italian Falanghina, you’ll know he referred to Orange Blossom. Way more intuitive than my ”herbally / floral” reference I must say!
At the end of the day, wine and wine aromas are complex and each person’s smeller is different and brings different senses to the party. The good news is, if you smell something floral in your wine, you’re absolutely not crazy! You’re just getting a whiff of all the yummy goodness the wine will offer when you sip, swish and savor! Next time you’re at your local wine shop, ask for an aromatic, floral wine and see for yourself. It’s magical!
Cheers!
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