What are aromatic wines?
Out Of the five senses of the body, smell can boast that it has the most memory of all of them, since it is directly related to the important field of emotions. So in this post I would like to delve into the definition of the various aromas of wine, with the aim that you learn to recognize them better, describing their origins and associating them with specific sensations. In this way, you will get a rewarding and fun experience when tasting a good wine, I promise!
In the first place, it is necessary to be clear about the difference between aroma and smell in relation to this type of products. On the one hand, we use the aroma concept to include all the positive impressions that arise during the development of a tasting, while the smell will be used in the opposite case, when the expressions are negative. For example, thyme and citrus would be aromas, but cork and humidity would fall within the classification of odors.
Once this clarification is made, we can focus on the different types of aromas that exist in a wine. Of all of them, a great quantity of information is revealed, such as the variety of grapes, the process used for their elaboration or their age, among many other details.
Exactly, all the wines are able to develop certain aromatic substances during the different steps of their elaboration process, since the grape is grown in the vineyard until the aging.
Classification of aromatic wines
At present, depending on the stage in which the wine itself is located, we can distinguish up to three types of aromas very different from each other. They are the following:
- Primary aromas: those that depend, above all, on the variety of the grape, but also on the area where the crop is located, together with the composition of the soil and the climate. You can find these aromas in the younger wines and on the nose floral characteristics are appreciated (rosemary, rose, violet, hawthorn …), vegetables (laurel, mushrooms, thyme, truffle …), fruit (citrus, almond, apple, currant, plum …), minerals (iodine, oil …) and spices (nutmeg, cardamom, pepper …).
- Secondary aromas: in this case, they are somewhat more complex and usually appear when alcoholic and malolactic fermentation has already taken place. Being a second aromatic level, they do not depend on environmental factors, but on the type of yeasts and the conditions in which the fermentation takes place, with a special importance of the aerated and the temperature. Generally, they are usually somewhat sweeter aromas and can be classified into those of fermentation (yeast, biscuit, breadcrumbs …), lactic or with dairy references (milk, yogurt, fresh cheese …) and amylic ( candy, varnish …).
- Tertiary aromas: it is likely that you have also heard or read some reference to this type of aromas as «bouquet». They are produced during the aging of the wine in the barrel, including its subsequent ripening in the bottle. Possibly, it is the stage of the wine in which greater complexity of aromas can be appreciated, which is why they are an essential factor to achieve that exquisiteness so persecuted. As in the two previous cases, the aromas that can be recognized in this third section are floral-vegetables (combination of truffle, mushrooms, chamomile …), fruit confectionery (nuts, figs, red fruits, apricot … ), woody and balsamic (wood, incense, cinnamon, eucalyptus, licorice, pine …), animals-empyreumatics (leather, musk …) and confectionery (shades of beeswax, honey, coconut …) .
What is the origin of the aroma of a wine?
Possibly, this is one of the most clear and objective information of this subject. The aromas of the wine come directly from the soil, the air and the water that intervene in some of the phases of its elaboration. The earth provides aromatic compounds, but air and water are also able to accumulate, over the years, essences of plants and vegetables.
The wines owe their aromas to their own chemical composition, although the one responsible for each one in particular is not a single compound, but the combination of several. In addition, the way in which wines are made plays a very important role in determining the intensity of the aromas. They are fermented at fairly low temperatures, with the aim of keeping all their aromatic nuances very fresh.