If you’ve ever had trouble describing the taste of a wine, here’s an internet gem: the Vinography Aroma Card. At a glance, the card surfaces scents and aromas we’d normally spend hours racking our brains to pinpoint. If this sounds effusively positive, know this: this card has been translated into six languages. That’s how useful it is.
The flavors are divided into five main groupings. While Vinography doesn’t specify names for each category, you can pretty much infer from the descriptors.
Fruits Found in White Wine: It’s easy to default to citrus, apple, or stone fruit when it comes to white fruit. The card is here to remind you about dimensions of fruit, like canned peach, lemon curd, or stewed apples.
Fruits Found in Red Wine: Thought you knew your red fruit? The card also suggests less obvious aromas like black olive, dried fruit, and pomegranate.
Vegetal/Mineral: This is the section for more subtle aromatics that don’t always jump out, but if you’re looking, you’ll find. For example — pencil shavings, ginger, or even artichoke.
Aromas Derived from Oak: This is the section of warm, toasty scents that you know, but may have trouble pinpointing without a prompt. Think cedar, almond, fresh brioche, or even hay.
Pungent or Flawed Aromatics: Here’s where stuff gets interesting. Smoked meats and damp earth are good qualities, and petrol is a typical quality of riesling. But “wet Band-aid” or tomato in your wine? Identifying these compounds early on could spare yourself a bad glass.
Print out the Vinography Aroma Card, and if you get good mileage from the card, Vinography does accept donations! Check out the rest of their blog here.
The internet is a treasure trove of wine blogs and information. Here at The Wine Daily, we’ll continue to surface the best of these resources as we discover them.