FAQs
When memorizing smells, why are TasterPlace Aromas better than smelling the actual fruit, vegetable, or other fresh raw material, itself?
The answer is simple: to register an aroma in your mind you have to smell it blindly, and therefor without knowing what it is. Furthermore, it is essential to repeat this procedure several times after hours, days or even weeks; this would mean redoing the shopping every time you want to train, not to mention that some fruits and flowers may be out of season. Bottle aromas are therefore the easiest and fastest way to train; using this convenient and practical means, however, does not exclude the fact that you can also buy the "fresh" raw material at will, but it invites those who use them to discover and learn new smells in a way that's always at hand.
Does the use of aroma samples replace the practice of tasting wine or affect negatively the tasting process?
No, training with aromas does not negatively affect, or replace in any way, your practical tasting of products. Instead it facilitates your learning with an additional way to memorize scents. It "breaks the ice" so to speak and helps your nose get used to scents through the use of this simple tool. When you do an actual product tasting, your nose is better equipped to recognize the individual scents.
Do the bottle aroma samples correspond to "real" aromas?
Yes, because the aromas are natural extracts or synthetic molecules that faithfully reproduce the characteristic smell / aroma. They have been selected with the help of professional sommeliers and the purity of the aromas is verified through chemical analysis. Clearly the real aromas can have more nuances since, for example, an apple changes its aroma slightly depending on the type, season, degree of ripeness.
Do the bottle aroma samples correspond to the aromas in "real" wines?
TasterPlace aromas are created with the same olfactory molecules that chemical analysis has made evident in wines. However, in a wine, these molecules can be present in lower concentrations and overlap each other, making them more difficult to recognize. An example is the alpha ionone molecule which gives the violet flower its characteristic aroma and which is present in many red wines and in particular in those obtained from Nebbiolo grapes: in the bottle the alpha ionone is intense and immediately recalls the scent of a violet, while in wine it is very delicate and requires training in order to be recognized. Another example is isoamyl acetate which reproduces the characteristic aroma of banana and which is found in food and drink. If smelled in its purity it gives the impression of a "stylized" banana, because it lacks green and tropical nuances, but precisely for this reason, it is easier to memorize and more similar to the actual aroma present in wines.
This means that the TasterPlace Aromas are very useful for training the sense of smell in order to be more successful at tasting, but they do not replace in any way the actual practice of tasting wine by the glass.
Do professional sommeliers recommend the use of aromas as a learning tool?
Yes. Aroma samples in bottles for training the sense of smell are used as a learning tool in many professional courses for sommeliers, in Italy and abroad. Many internationally renowned sommeliers and winemakers promote their use.
12 aromas per kit are not too few?
The aromas in a wine are very numerous, but our experience has led us to create a kit of 10-15 aromas that allows you to awaken your sense of smell and learn quickly without overwhelming yourself.
However, for those who want to venture further, there is the possibility of combining different TasterPlace kits with different aromas or of customizing your kit. In this way, the number of TasterPlace aromas available for training multiplies: 12, 24, 36, 48, 60 ... Please contact us at info@tasterplace.com with any questions or requests and we'll be happy to get back to you.