If you think the sense of taste was the only important skill that a winemaker would need, you’d be wrong. A winemaker’s sense of smell is critical to the winemaking process. And like any other muscle in your body, it requires practice. As soon as you are born you start to lose your sense of smell.

To hone our sense of smell, we practice with a kit called Le Nez du Vin, loosely translated it means the smell of wine. There are 54 different vials of scents in the kit that replicate various scents found in nature and in wine. It is not enough to pick up a grapefruit in the grocery store and remember what that smells like because you are also using your eyes to identify the fruit. It is important to make the connection between the smell of blueberries and maybe a Syrah, or that what you are smelling in a Grenache might be strawberries.

Stop into the LDV tasting room in Old Town Scottsdale and practice.