Gustatory Vocabulary

I am rereading Emile Peynaud's Knowing and Making Wine. In the second chapter, Peynaud goes through a topic called Gustatory Vocabulary. The first impression of a wine is it's odor and wine odor can be divided into aroma and bouquet.

• Aroma: refers to the odor of a young wine
• Bouquet refers to an odor that is acquired through aging

I have to confess that I am a hedonist when it comes to wine descriptions. That is, I'll say, "I like it, or I don't like it." And, that is perfectly acceptable, but there is so much more to describing wine and I found some appropriate descriptors listed by Peynaud:

Fruity	Apple, peach, plum, blackcurrent, strawberry, raspberry, cherry, banana, quince, lemon, hazelnut
Flowery	Rose, violet, reseda, magnolia, honey
Spicy	Clove, cinnamon, fruitstones, orris root, vanilla, kirsch, bitter almonds
Smokey	Caramel, wood smoke, toast, coffee, grilled almonds
Woody	Cedarwood, resin, liquorice, dried leaves
Animal odors	Musk, amber, venison, game, fur

In addition to the above, there is a very good Aroma Wheel created by UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology emeritus, Ann C. Noble that can be used to describe the odor of wine.
There are also a lot of descriptors associated with post bottling defects that I blogged about earlier that can be attributed to certain chemical compounds and reproduced here:

Compound	Aroma	Treshhold of Detection
Acetaldehyde	pungent, fruity, apple	100 ppm
Phenylacetaldehyde	old flowers, old rose, acacia, sweet, honey-like, slightly rancid also can produce fresh, fruity aromas	50 ppb
Sotolon	walnut, nutty or oxidized aroma also maple syrup and curry	7 ppb
1,1,6-trimethyl-1,2-dihydronapthalene (TDN)	kerosene, old riesling	50 ppb
Methylmercaptan (MeSH) Dimethyldisulfide(DMDS)	rotten cabbage, broccoli, natural gas,cooked vegetables	1.5 ppb (MeSH) 10 ppb (DMDS)
Dimethylsulfide(DMS)	canned corn, asparagus, olive, truffle	20 ppb
2,4,6-trichoroanisole (TCA)	moldy or musty	2-6 ppt
2,4,6-tribromoanisole (TBA)	moldy or swimming pool	3-6 ppt
4-ethylphenyl (4-EP) 4-ethylguaiacol (4-EG)	phenol, Band-Aid, leather, clove, barnyard	400 ppb (4-EP) 50 ppb (4-EG)
2-ethyl-tetrahydropyridine 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline 2-acetyl-tetrahydropyridine	mousy, mouse cage, salami skin	low ppb