The Wine Aroma Wheel

Did you know that as much as 80 percent of what we perceive as "taste" is actually smell? Novice wine tasters often find it difficult to translate into words the things they smell in a wine. Fortunately, it is very easy to train our noses and brains to connect and quickly link terms with aromas.

The UC Davis Wine Aroma Wheel, developed by A.C. Noble, is made of three tiers: it has very general terms located in the center (e.g. fruity or chemical), going to the most specific terms in the outer tier (e.g. grapefruit or strawberries). It's an extremely useful tool to learn about wines and enhance one's ability to describe the complexity of wine flavor.