February 17, 2006

Time to Get A Wine Wheel

I think it's finally time for me to invest in a few wine aroma wheels. It can be particularly difficult to nail down what I am tasting in a glass of wine aside from the obvious stuff (oak, butter, cherry, berry, poop, and yes, alcohol!). Was that cat pee or a Salem light? HMMMMM. Time to get a wine wheel, I think, the equivalent of the wine world's Cliff Notes. The wine aroma wheel was developed during the mid-1980s by Ann C. Noble, a professor at UC Davis, Emerita. Noble is a Sensory Scientist/Flavor Chemist who today travels around the world as a wine judge, attending meetings about sensometrics, wine, sensory science and such. In 1997, Jane Robichaud, director of sensory research at Napa Valley's Beringer Vineyards, updated the wheel. Here's another site that offers a sensory user's manual.
You can buy a wine wheel on Noble's site for $6 (.75 shipping) Here's a food and wine wheel that promises to link a wine with any food "from Chinese to chocolate." It costs $4.99. Maybe I'll order one of those, too.

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