Help me sniff out the right wine aroma kit!

December 10, 2008 9:39 AM

What wine smell kit do I need?

I know that Le Nez Du Vin is the "official" wine aroma kit, but I want to know if there's a significant difference between it and other kits like this one. Obviously, there's a huge difference in the number of aromas you get for the price, but I have no clue as to the difference in quality. Ideally, I'd like to eventually have the complete Le Nez Du Vin set, but I'm curious as to whether I should buy a smaller official kit now or a broader, but less sanctioned set of smells. What are your experiences with different sets of wine smells?

posted by solipsophistocracy to food & drink (2 comments total)

I bought a subset of Le Nez Du Vin (the 12 white aromas set) as a present for a oenophile friend. We tried it out with some mixed feelings. The smells really do smell like they ought to, but after doing a few blind sniff tests, I wasn't sure what the point of it was. If you want to know how blackberries/bread/truffles smell, why not just sniff blackberries/bread/truffles, instead of shelling out for such an expensive set of tiny bottles? Even the "faulty aromas", e.g. vinegar seem fairly obvious.

So in summary, if you really feel this is worthwhile, buy a small set of the Le Nez and see if you actually find it useful.
posted by roofus at 4:31 AM on December 11, 2008

That seems like solid advice. None of the smells correspond with articles that are too difficult to find in real life. For some reason, I guess I just thought they would be nuanced in such a way that makes them easier to isolate in wine. Perhaps the money would be better spent elsewhere.
posted by solipsophistocracy at 7:32 AM on December 11, 2008