Getting Your Nose Into Wine

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California boasts more than twenty different winegrowing regions, each with distinctive personalities reflected in the landscape, the wineries and the wines, and even familiar spots have undiscovered back roads and spectacular but less-visited regions within the region. In fact, California now has 107 different American Viticultural Areas or AVAs, delimited winegrowing areas recognized by the federal government. Wine is a signature product of California and an important part of the cultural and physical landscape of the state. California is the fourth largest wine producer in the world and Golden State wineries produce 90 percent of all U.S. wine!

The best way to improve one's wine tasting ability is to taste as much wine as possible, on a regular basis. The sensory experience of wine is highly subjective; the wines temperature, the ambient temperature, psychological and physical states and many other factors contribute to the impression of a wine. It is of utmost importance to take notes on your evaluation. Two things make a master taster: knowing what you like and dislike, and knowing how to describe it.

Wine doesn't have eyes, ears or teeth, but some say it has a "nose."

I won't say the term is snobbish, but I'd feel uneasy about standing around, glass in hand, chatting about a wine's nose. This one's aquiline, that one's pug, the one over there's had an operation?

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California boasts more than twenty different winegrowing regions, each with distinctive personalities reflected in the landscape, the wineries and the wines, and even familiar spots have undiscovered back roads and spectacular but less-visited regions within the region. In fact, California now has 107 different American Viticultural Areas or AVAs, delimited winegrowing areas recognized by the federal government.

Few wine lovers are lucky enough to possess perfect purpose built, cavernous, subterranean cellars. Many of us have imperfect storage arrangements for our wine, but it is important to understand how to protect wine from damaging conditions so that we can make the most of the wine storage facilities available. Wine storage conditions dont need to be perfect, but the finer the wine and the longer you intend to store it for, the nearer to perfect they have to be.

For that matter, I'm not too comfortable with the distinction some tasters make between a wine's "aroma," referring to the natural smell it takes from the fruit, and its "bouquet," the complex overtones it may develop with age in the bottle.

Three terms to refer to one sense? It reminds me of the Eskimos, who reportedly have scores of words to define subtleties in snow, from snowball-packing quality to bricks for igloos.

So let's strike a blow for clarity in wine language by agreeing to use plain English here.

I'll talk about how a wine "smells," and if I feel the need for synonyms, I might refer to its aroma or scent. I'll warn you if I find one that stinks.

One thing makes common scents: Smell is important to the wine taster. Much of what we think is taste really comes through our noses. If you don't believe it, try to enjoy a wine - or a meal - the next time you have a bad head cold.

When it comes to smelling, we take a distant second place to dogs and cats. Still, we humans can train our sense of smell, and you don't have to be an expert wine taster to learn to sniff out the differences among wines.

There is a lot of variety in the way in which different wines will react to adverse conditions. Red wines tend to be more robust with white wines being more delicate. There is also variation between the grape varieties, with grapes like cabernet sauvignon being considerably more resilient than pinot noir.

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September is the perfect time to take to the road or gather friends around your dining room table to experience the flavorful results of California’s winemakers’ labors and celebrate the 2006 harvest season just getting underway. With a special proclamation from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, designating September as the time to acknowledge the commitment of the state’s 2000 wineries and 5000 winegrape growers to “the highest standards of excellence,” special events abound in wine regions throughout the state, and many retailers and restaurateurs are putting the spotlight on California wine with promotions and seasonal menus.