CLASSIC AROMATIC GROUPS
There are a few categories that we use to group together classic aromas commonly found in wines. These are simply guidelines to how you can describe a wine. The key to tasting a wine is to open your mind and enjoy what comes to YOU, not to the person next to you or to try and match what the tasting note says. As every person tastes and smells a wine slightly differently, experts’ tasting notes are not the be all and end all of what is found in the glass.
The four categories are as follows: Floral, Fruit, Spice, and Other. Not every single wine will show an aroma from each of these main categories. Most will be heavily weighted towards one category and balanced out with aromas from another two or three.
Here is a fantastic 'wine aroma wheel' that our friends 'Wine Folly' have put together to help give you an idea of the vast range of classic wine aromas that wine tasters will use to describe wines. These are great starting points to help you out describing wines for yourself.
FLORAL |
FRUITY |
SPICE |
OTHER |
FLORAL