How to exercise your nose and expand your arsenal of smells

Visit the grocery store or a flower shop to expand your scent palate

A reader wrote me recently with a great question. He wondered how I perceived so many aromas and tastes, because he could only pick up a few. It’s a fascinating universe. We humans each carry around a suitcase of recognizable smells and tastes, usually fairly limited to what we experience in our daily lives.

The active suitcase is usually fewer than 100 items.

Food critics, wine writers and judges, sommeliers and chefs seem to have larger arsenals than normal folks.

It’s not ability, but built up from constant exposure to detecting the subtle differences in comparable wines and foods.

To grow your suitcase larger, you can buy horribly priced exotic kits containing vials of all kinds of smells.

Frankly, I find these somewhat chemical to the nose. The roses do not smell natural, etc.

What works is exercising your nose. I used to direct my wine students to visit their grocery store on smelling expeditions, with particular attention paid to exotic fruits and breads, herbs and spices. Flower shops or your summer garden are excellent sniffing grounds.

Of course, part of detecting the components in a wine is the power of suggestion. I am sure you have smelled something in a wine and as soon as you commented on it, some of your fellow tasters also perceived it. Depends on your suitcase. I think old smells not recently experienced go dormant. If I did not sip wine for three months, I am sure lots of my catalogue would slip away from my active suitcase.

The worst wine smells are unforgettable: nail polish (ethyl acetate); rancid cheese (oxidized or too old); wet newspaper (corked); rotten eggs (too much sulphur). Do not drink, these are flawed wines.

We have five delights from the Sept. 5 Vintages release for you to discover today.

Please enjoy! stimmell@sympatico.ca