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Monday, January 13, 2014

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

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