Of all our senses, smell seems the most mysterious and remarkable. With a whiff I can be taken back to my great Aunt’s bathroom in Brooklyn with its faint aroma of cold porcelain, damp brick and drying clothes. The scent of pine paneling and concrete always reminds me of my best friend’s basement on Long Island. And yesterday, while standing on a ladder pumping over a tank of Kobler Syrah, snacking on an apple with almond butter, I had a staggering flashback of my last Passover at my parents–the crisp apple and nut smells had combined in the air over the wine to evoke my favorite Passover dish, charoset.

With our sense of smell so often tied to memory, we often forget it is intricately connected to what we think of as taste. This is particularly true of wine, triggering the production of aroma wheels and aroma kits to assist us in unlocking and identifying the subtler scents in wine. Continue reading »

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