Smell Wine?

Have you ever wondered where people come up with the descriptions for what they smell in wine?
Does it sound pretentious?

I always thought so.  I thought there was a standard by which everyone could describe the wine and everyone would understand.

Yea, not so.  What smells like the oak door off an outhouse to me, may smell entirely different to someone else.

I just loved this article and wanted to share it with all of you.

The world of wine descriptors is an inexact science. Especially since every person seems to have a slightly different sense of taste. All the wine critic can do is to faithfully describe what is personally detected in the glass of wine.

You can enhance your sense of smell and taste by simply paying serious attention to it. And you can expand your olfactory ability in many ways, such as sniffing your spices and herbs in your kitchen or smelling exotic fruits at your grocery store.

My first daunting task as a newly hatched wine sniffer was being confronted with 30 almost identical California Chardonnays, all oaked, and struggling to describe what made each one unique. It requires more concentration than you might expect.

I got a real chuckle from a reader’s email the other night. She started by congratulating me on my great wine column. Then she confessed she never drinks wine or, for that matter, any kind of alcohol. No, she reads my column first every Saturday because she thinks it is hilarious, all those funny descriptors. She finds my column funnier than the comics.

I replied by thanking her for reading me and confessed I did try to entertain, as well as inform.

Most wine drinkers and regular readers recognize the descriptors I use because they encounter such smells and tastes in their everyday consumption of wine. So it is not alien territory or language from another planet to them.

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What it boils down to is this.  Tell people what it smells like to you.  Not what you think they want to hear.

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Article:  Smell Wine?
Original Source:  The Star
Author:  Gord Stimmel
 
 

Authorities in central Pennsylvania were called to investigate a suspicious smell at an abandoned house.

At first police thought they had found a meth lab. But it turns out to be an old winemaking operation.

Officers in North Cornwall Township searched the home’s basement. They discovered five-gallon pails and hundreds of glass beakers. It’s the sort of stuff used to cook meth. But after more tests and some research, officers say the home’s former tenant had most likely been making wine in the basement.

Moral: Drink your wine before it turns to meth!

I love riding a bicycle!

This surprises many people I meet because I am of large girth, as my mother used to say.  At 6’4″ and 250 lbs it would seem that I would be too big for a bicycle, but it is a great sport for anyone.

And, I love wine!  So what could be more fun than touring wineries on a bicycle?  So, in 2000, that is exactly what I did.   I toured the wineries in Napa and Sonoma counties in California by bike.

I registered with a bicycle touring company called Backroads who arranged for the lodging, provided maps and basic support.   It’s the lazy man’s way to tour wineries by bicycle.

On the second day out, I arrived at the Charles Krug winery along with one other rider.  I was excited to see the winery as I love their wines, and wanted to see how they are made.  We asked if we could take a tour, but were told that they couldn’t give a tour for two people and we would have to wait for more people to arrive.  About 10 mins later, a bus full of German tourists arrived, and although I spoke not one word of German, we joined their group.  Fortunately, the tour guide only spoke English, so it was up to the interpreter to keep the German group happy.

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From the Readers Digest – October, 2009

The night we took our three young sons to an upscale restaurant for the first time, my husband ordered a bottle of wine.

The server brought it over, began the ritual uncorking, and poured a small amount for me to taste.

My six year old piped up, “Mom usually drinks a lot more than that!”