Creating Wine Aromas: A Beginner's Guide To Wine Making

Wine aromas are naturally occurring chemical compounds that enhance our appreciation of wine. Wine professionals train their noses to discern these aromas and flavours with ease. You can create your own wine aroma kit at home with a few simple ingredients, such as spices, herbs, jams, fruits, and vegetables, and a neutral base wine. This allows you to practice identifying different aromas and improve your wine-tasting skills without breaking the bank.

Using a base wine

When creating your own wine aroma kit, you will need a base wine, different produce, spices, or other materials. The base wine is by definition neutral, without faults, strong aromas, tastes, or mouthfeels. The best base wines are inexpensive and come in a bag in a box, which means you will have a large volume of the same batch to work with. For white wine aroma standards, you can use an inexpensive, neutral white wine such as Pinot Grigio. For red wine aroma standards, you can use an inexpensive, neutral red wine such as Merlot or Beaujolais.

To create your wine aroma kit, you will need one glass for each aroma standard. Mark each glass so you know which aroma it will contain by writing the name of the aroma on a small sticker and labelling each glass. Pour 2 ounces or 4 tablespoons of wine into each wine glass. If you are adding pieces of produce such as green bell pepper, let them macerate for 30 minutes to an hour and then remove them so you don't have any visual cues if you are trying to recognize the aroma standards blind.

Next, 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. You can then test yourself by transferring each sticker to the bottom of its glass and shuffling the glasses. Can you identify any of the aromas?

Blending aromas with wine

To blend aromas with wine, start by choosing a base wine. The base wine should be neutral, without any strong aromas, tastes, or mouthfeels. Inexpensive wines such as Pinot Grigio or Merlot are good options for this purpose.

Next, select the aromas you want to blend with the wine. Common options include spices, fruits, vegetables, and herbs. For example, you can use black peppercorns, vanilla extract, lemon peel, or grapefruit juice. You can find many of these ingredients in your kitchen or local supermarket.

Prepare your selected aromas by crushing, cutting, or rubbing them to release their scents. Then, add a small amount of each aroma, such as a teaspoon or a few drops, to a separate glass of wine. Allow the aromas to infuse for about an hour before removing any solid ingredients.

Now, you can start blending your wine. Pour a small amount of the base wine into a glass and add a few drops of each infused aroma. Gently swirl the glass to mix the wine and aromas together. Take a sniff and try to identify the different scents that have been blended.

By blending aromas with wine, you can train your nose to detect subtle scents and improve your wine-tasting abilities. This technique is a fun and educational way to enhance your appreciation of wine and discover new flavours and aromas that appeal to you.

Smelling aromas

To make your own wine aroma kit, you will need some small jars, spices, herbs, jams, and other ingredients that typically show up in wine. You can put a teaspoon of each spice into a small, airtight container and a tablespoon of each jam into a mini mason jar. Label each container, then lay them out on a tray for easy organization.

Once your aroma kit is set up, you can use it to improve your sense of smell. One way to do this is to open a container and sniff. However, it's easy to overwhelm your sense of smell this way, so take 2-3 short sniffs to avoid becoming desensitized. Keep a glass of wine nearby and sniff it between the different aromas to keep your nose calibrated.

Another method is to infuse some of the herb, spice, or jam in a glass of neutral-tasting wine. This is an excellent way to use cheaper wine, such as boxed wine. Simply add a small amount of the spice or herb to the wine and let it infuse. This technique works particularly well on spices like anise and green peppercorn.

You can also blend single aroma kit ingredients into a small portion of wine to understand how aromas interact with the volatile compounds of wine (aka alcohol). For example, you can add a drop of vanilla extract to a glass of wine to simulate the oak characteristic found in wines aged in French and Hungarian oak.

By practising smelling aromas, you can improve your ability to identify the complex scents in wine and enhance your appreciation for this ancient beverage.

Choosing a base wine

A base wine is by definition neutral, without faults, strong aromas, tastes, or mouthfeels. The best base wines usually come in a bag in a box, which means you'll have a large volume of the same batch to work with. For a neutral white wine, you could use Pinot Grigio, and for a neutral red wine, you could use Merlot or Beaujolais. These wines are inexpensive and can be found at your local supermarket or with the help of a local wine retailer. One bottle of each is enough to make 10 to 12 wine aroma standards.

If you're making a kit specifically for red wines, you could use a bolder red wine variety like Cabernet Sauvignon or Mourvedre as your base.

Once you've chosen your base wine, pour 2 ounces or 4 tablespoons of wine into each wine glass. You'll need one glass for each aroma standard you plan to make.

Mark each glass so you know which aroma it will contain. Write the name of each aroma on a small sticker and label each glass.

Now you're ready to add your aromas! Follow the recipes below, or get creative and experiment with your own combinations.

White wine common aromas

• Asparagus: several drops of brine of canned asparagus
• Bell Pepper: a tiny piece of bell pepper; don't leave it in for too long
• Vanilla: a drop of vanilla extract
• Citrus: ~ 1 teaspoon of fresh orange and grapefruit juice
• Peach: several teaspoons of peach or apricot puree or juice
• Pineapple: 1 teaspoon of juice
• Honey: 1-2 tablespoons

Red wine common aromas

• Asparagus: several drops of brine of canned asparagus
• Bell Pepper: a tiny piece of bell pepper
• Vanilla: a drop of vanilla extract
• Soy sauce: a few drops (great for older red wines)
• Berry: fresh/frozen berries and/or jams
• Berry jam: 1-3 tablespoons of strawberry jam
• Black pepper: a few grains of black pepper
• Anise, black licorice: a few drops of anise extract

Sparkling wine particular aromas

• Lime: a few drops of lime juice or squeezed lime juice
• Apple: freshly cut apple
• Toasted hazelnuts: crushed nuts alone
• Sour cream/yogurt: 1 tablespoon in an empty glass
• Yeasty: 1 teaspoon of Vegemite or Marmite
• Cherry/strawberry: a few drops of flavored juices or extracts
• Caramel: crush one caramel candy
• Vanilla: as for table wines

Testing yourself

Once you have created your wine aroma standards, you can test yourself to see if you can identify the different aromas. Here is a step-by-step guide:

• Transfer the stickers with the aroma names to the bottom of their respective glasses so that you cannot see them.
• Shuffle the glasses.
• Swirl and sniff each glass of wine.
• Try to identify the aroma in each glass.
• Check your answers by looking at the stickers on the bottom of the glasses.

You can also use your wine aroma kit to test your sense of smell further. Here are some additional methods:

• Open a container of a single aroma and sniff it. Be careful not to overwhelm your sense of smell by taking 2-3 short sniffs to avoid becoming desensitized.
• Smell an aroma, and then smell a wine. This will overload your senses with the selected aroma and enhance your ability to smell the wine in a different context.
• Blend single aroma kit ingredients into a small portion of wine to understand how aromas interact with the volatile compounds of wine.

By practising and training your nose, you will improve your ability to identify the various aromas present in wines.

Frequently asked questions