Taste and smell - total enjoyment
The enjoyment of wine depends not only on what we taste, but to a large degree on what we smell.
We can compare the significance of tasting and smelling as follows: taste provides a basic pattern as well as details about the harmony of a wine, while smell imparts information about the wine's diverse qualities and origin.We can perceive four tastes - sweetness, acidity, bitterness and saltiness - through the taste buds on the tongue. Through our sense of smell, however, we can perceive more than a thousand different aromatic nuances. Those properties most relevant to German wine are listed on the aroma wheel. Yet total enjoiment comes only when taste and smell work in tandem. When we taste a wine - a process enhanced by amply swirling it in the glass and on the tongue - aromas enter the respiratory tract and automatically reach the nose when we exhale. At this stage you can tell whether a wine "tastes" fruity or floral. Anyone who's ever had a cold can judge just how this so-called retronasal sense of smell affects our ability to taste - for then, even favorite foods and wines have no taste because the aromas are blocked from reaching the olfactory system.
The aroma wheel shows the components of smell and taste, the conclusions you can draw from them and above all, how you can competently express these impressions in words everyone will understand.
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