Enhance Your Wine Palate: Aroma Kit Guide

Wine aroma kits are designed to help you identify the various aromas in a glass of wine. The kits typically contain a series of small vials, each containing the essence of a common wine aroma. To use the kit, you would sniff the vials to familiarise yourself with the different aromas and then try to identify those aromas in a glass of wine. This helps to improve your sense of smell and can also aid in blindly identifying the type of wine you are drinking. Wine aroma kits can be purchased or made at home using common household spices and ingredients.

Blending with wine

• Choose a base wine: Select a neutral wine without strong aromas, tastes, or mouthfeels. Inexpensive wines such as Pinot Grigio, Merlot, or Beaujolais are good options, as they can be used to create multiple aroma standards.
• Prepare the aroma ingredients: Gather the spices or other materials you want to use as aroma references. Common options include black pepper, vanilla, citrus fruits, berries, and herbs like mint or rosemary.
• Mark your glasses: Label each glass with the name of the aroma you plan to add. This helps you keep track of which aroma is in each glass.
• Add wine to the glasses: Pour 2 ounces (or 4 tablespoons) of your chosen base wine into each glass.
• Add the aroma ingredients: For ingredients like fruits or herbs, cut them into small pieces and add them to their respective glasses. For spices, a few grains or a pinch is usually enough. You can also use extracts or purees; add a few drops or a teaspoon, depending on the intensity of the aroma.
• Let the ingredients soak: Allow the ingredients to infuse in the wine for about an hour. This helps the aromas blend with the wine.
• Remove solid ingredients: After the soaking time, remove any solid ingredients from the wine. This ensures that you don't have any visual cues when identifying the aromas.
• Swirl and sniff: Swirl the wine in the glass to release the aromas, then take a sniff. Try to identify the aroma that has been added to each glass. You can compare the aroma-infused wine with a control wine (a wine without any added aromas) to enhance your understanding of the interaction between aromas and wine compounds.
• Test your senses: For a fun challenge, cover the labels on the glasses and shuffle them. Swirl and sniff each glass, trying to identify the aroma without looking at the label. This helps you assess your progress in recognising different aromas.

By following these steps and experimenting with different aroma ingredients, you will improve your ability to detect and identify the subtle and complex aromas in wine. Remember, practice makes perfect, so keep blending and sniffing to train your nose and enhance your wine-tasting skills!

Smelling aromas

There are two methods for using a wine aroma kit to train your sense of smell. The first is to smell the aroma in its jar and then smell a wine. This overloads your senses with the selected aroma and opens up your ability to smell the wine in a different context. By smelling the aroma from the kit first, you effectively remove that aroma from your sense of smell for a short period, and you’ll smell different things in the wine that weren’t as obvious before.

The second method is to blend single aroma kit ingredients into a small portion of wine to understand how aromas interact with the volatile compounds of wine (i.e. alcohol). Spices need something to volatilise aromas into the air, so by crushing, cutting or rubbing spices, you can smell them more easily. The best trick is to add the spice to about an ounce of wine in a wine glass. The spice will ‘flavour’ the smell of the wine. This technique works particularly well on spices like anise and green peppercorn.

Professional tasters usually use a system of taking two short sniffs followed by a longer, slower sniff. The short sniffs help to ‘prime your nose’ and the longer sniff helps you ‘observe’ the aroma.

Using spices

To get started, gather your spices. Common spices used in wine aroma kits include black peppercorns, white pepper, black cardamom, dried tobacco, cedar chips, anise, allspice, oregano, vanilla, nutmeg, and dill. You can purchase these spices from a spice shop or grocery store. It is recommended to use dried spices as they last longer than fresh ones.

Once you have your spices, you can create your own wine aroma kit by placing each spice in a separate jar or vial. Label each container with the name of the spice. You can find inexpensive jars or vials at a home goods store or online.

Now, you are ready to begin smelling! Open one jar at a time and smell the spice. Focus on the scent for a few seconds before closing the jar. If you want to get a stronger scent, try crushing, cutting, or rubbing the spice beforehand. You can also add a small amount of spice to a glass of wine to understand how the aromas interact with each other. This technique works particularly well with spices like anise and green peppercorn.

When smelling the spices, try to take two short sniffs followed by a longer, slower sniff. This technique is used by professional tasters and helps to prime your nose and observe the aroma. Repeat this process for each spice, taking your time to really focus on the unique fragrance of each one.

In addition to smelling the spices individually, you can also create your own spice blends to simulate the complex aromas found in wine. Experiment with different combinations of spices and add them to a small portion of wine. This will help you understand how the spices interact with the volatile compounds in the wine, creating new and interesting fragrances.

By regularly practising with your wine aroma kit, you will gradually train your nose to identify the different spices and fragrances found in wine. This will enhance your wine-tasting experience and impress your friends at your next dinner party!

Identifying wine faults

Wine aroma kits are an excellent tool for wine enthusiasts and professionals alike to identify wine faults and avoid bad bottles. The kits typically contain a set of aroma vials, each representing a common fault found in wine, along with an instructional manual and a book on wine flaws.

The 12-aroma wine faults kit by Le Nez du Vin is a popular choice, designed to help you identify and memorise the 12 most common wine faults. The kit includes aromas such as vegetal, rotten apple, vinegar, glue, soap, sulphur, rotten egg, onion, cauliflower, horse, mouldy-earthy, and cork. These aromas are directly linked to the composition of affected wines, allowing you to determine if a wine is corked, oxidised, or shows reduction.

By using the kit, you can familiarise yourself with the distinct smells associated with these faults. For example, the aroma of sulphur may indicate the presence of cork taint, while vinegar and rotten egg smells can suggest faults due to oxidation or reduction.

The instructional manual and book included in the kit provide valuable information on the causes of these flaws and strategies to avoid, eradicate, or minimise their impact. This knowledge is invaluable for sommeliers, enologists, and wine growers, ensuring they can identify faulty wines and take appropriate action.

In addition to the 12-aroma kit, more comprehensive kits are available, such as the 54-aroma master kit, which offers an even broader education in wine aromas and faults. These kits are designed to enhance your wine knowledge and sensory skills, empowering you to make informed decisions when selecting and tasting wines.

Training your nose

Wine aroma kits are a great way to train your nose to identify the various scents in a glass of wine. The concept is simple: the kits contain small vials of the most common wine aromas, which you can then use to sniff and identify the different scents. Over time, you'll find yourself catching a whiff of these scents even in a complex glass of wine.

Choosing a Kit

There are a variety of wine aroma kits available on the market, ranging from \$70 to nearly \$400. When choosing a kit, consider the number of aromas included, the type of aromas (fruit, floral, vegetal, etc.), and the quality of the scents. Some kits may also include additional materials such as booklets, flashcards, or games to enhance your learning experience.

Using the Kit

Once you've selected your kit, the next step is to start training your nose. Here's a suggested process:

• Preparation: If you've purchased a kit, simply unpack and organise your vials. If you're making your own kit, gather your ingredients and prepare your base wine.
• Daily Sniffing: Each day, take out a few vials at random and sniff them, quizzing yourself on each aroma. Try to identify the scent and, if provided, refer to any additional materials for more information.
• Wine Testing: After a week or so of aroma testing, put your skills to the test with a glass of wine. Swirl the wine and take a sniff, trying to identify any of the aromas you've been practising.
• Comparison: Compare your findings with the wine's description or notes. You can also refer to wine guides or apps to help you identify the different aromas in the wine.
• Repeat: Continue this process regularly, gradually increasing the number of aromas you practise with each session. Over time, you'll find your sense of smell becoming sharper and your ability to identify aromas improving.

Additional Tips:

• Priming Your Nose: Professional tasters often use a technique of taking two short sniffs followed by a longer, slower sniff. The short sniffs help to prime your nose, while the longer sniff allows you to observe the aroma more closely.
• Aroma Overload: Try smelling an aroma in its pure form and then smelling a wine. This technique overloads your senses with the selected aroma and enhances your ability to smell it in the wine.
• Spice Activation: Spices need something to volatilise their aromas into the air. Crush, cut, or rub spices to release their scent more effectively. Adding spices to a small amount of wine is also a great way to experience their impact on the wine's aroma.

Frequently asked questions