Wine Scents

If you were riding with me cruising around the Internet, you would most likely feel like a passenger in a car driven by Stevie Wonder.  No offense to Stevie Wonder, but I don't think I would want to be riding shotgun with him at the wheel.  Suffice it to say, I'm like one of those people with the bumper sticker, "I stop at yard sales" or "I brake for squirrels".  Simply put, when something catches my attention, I go there.  This practice often takes me off course into unknown territories.  However, sometimes it takes me to sites or blogs that I am familiar with the subject matter, and that brings me to today's topic.

I found a site promoting a "kit" that helps one learn more about the vast aromas inherent in particular wines.
Interesting, I thought as I clicked through all the pages on the site.  The kit is very comprehensive as it guides the user around all the aromas that can or should be prevalent in certain wines.  Here is the link to their site  http://www.aromaster.com/. 

Please don't read too much into this.  I think this is a wonderful tool to help people gain a better understanding of everything the wine world has to offer.  The concern I have is that it might be too complicated for the everyday consumer of wine.  In fact, this is a tool I used back in my days as a full-time wine consultant.  It was my job, and my responsibility, to be educated on all this.  The average consumer doesn't share this burden.  Notice I called it a "burden".  Yeah, it was a tough job, but somebody had to do it!

Anyway, I could go on forever about this, but I want to make one simple point.  There are only two ways of describing a wine, and this applies to all wines, whether a consumer, amateur or professional.  Those are, "I like it" or "I don't like it".  Enjoying wine is a very subjective experience.  One should not feel compelled to "like" a wine simply because someone else does.  Moreover, when in the presence of one of those "geeky-know it alls", you shouldn't feel ashamed or inadequate just because you can't smell the "stewed strawberry and earthy, forest floor" aromas that the geek is proudly smelling.  Again, either you like it, or you don't.  It is that simple.  If the geek happens to ask you if you are "picking up" the same aromas, just tell him that you never had your nose pressed against a forest floor, and you're not sure what he is talking about.

Enjoy wine, but enjoy the ones YOU like, explore the wine world at your leisure, and reduce your thoughts about wine to the two ways I mentioned.  You like it, or you don't, period...!!!

FG