Have you ever smelled a wine and noticed an aroma you know perfectly well, yet couldn't quite identify?
It's familiar, you're sure of it. Perhaps it reminds you of a fruit, a spice or a flower. Maybe even a place you visited many years ago.
And yet, the name escapes you.
It's on the tip of your tongue. Or rather, on the tip of your nose.
It happens even to people who have been tasting wine for years. That's because perceiving a scent, recognising it and being able to describe it are three closely connected, but not exactly identical, processes.
And the explanation is more fascinating than you might imagine.
Our Noses Remember More Than We Can Put into Words
Our sense of smell has an extraordinary ability to evoke memories.
A scent can suddenly transport us back to our grandparents' kitchen, a summer garden, a wine cellar or a dish we haven't tasted in years.
We don't have to search for the memory: the smell itself brings it back.
This connection is partly explained by the links between our olfactory system and the areas of the brain involved in memory and emotions.
But here's something curious: remembering an experience associated with a scent doesn't necessarily mean remembering the name of that scent.
We may recognise an aroma as familiar while still being unable to identify its source.
During a wine tasting, for example, we might notice a fruity note that reminds us of something very specific, without being able to decide whether it's cherry, sour cherry or plum.
Our brain has found an association. It just hasn't found the word yet.
What If We Changed the Question?
When we smell something we can't identify, the first question we usually ask ourselves is:
“What is this aroma?”
But let's try asking something different:
“Where have I smelled this before?”
The difference may seem small, but it can be surprisingly effective.
Instead of immediately searching for the name of a fruit or spice, we give our memories a chance to emerge.
Does that sweet, slightly spicy note remind us of a freshly baked cake?
Does that green, vegetal aroma take us back to a vegetable garden after the rain?
Does that floral scent resemble the fragrance we used to notice when walking past a flowering hedge in spring?
Starting with a memory or an experience can help us retrieve an olfactory association and, eventually, find the most appropriate word to describe it.
It's one of the most fascinating aspects of olfactory memory: before it has a name, a scent may already have a story.
Why Is It So Difficult to Describe Smells?
When it comes to colours, we're used to having a relatively precise vocabulary.
Ruby red, straw yellow, emerald green.
With aromas, however, language becomes more complicated.
We often borrow words from other senses: we describe an aroma as warm, fresh, soft, sharp, rounded or deep.
These expressions are useful, but they're not always enough to describe exactly what we're perceiving.
In wine tasting, we mainly use references to familiar things: fruits, flowers, spices, herbs, wood and toasted notes.
We talk about peach, rose, black pepper, vanilla and tobacco.
Of course, this doesn't mean those ingredients have actually been added to the wine. We're describing aromatic similarities, using a shared language that allows us to communicate our perceptions.
And this is where one of the challenges of wine tasting begins.
We may perceive an aroma clearly without yet having the olfactory reference or the words needed to describe it.
That's why training our sense of smell also means expanding our vocabulary.
A Little Game: Does the Scent Have a Name or a Memory?
Let's try a slightly different exercise.
Choose an aroma without looking at its name. You can use an aroma sample or an ingredient you have at home, prepared by someone else so you don't know what it is.
Smell it slowly and carefully.
Before trying to identify it, ask yourself these three questions.
1. What kind of sensation does it evoke?
Does it seem fresh, sweet, vegetal, spicy or toasted? Don't look for the exact name just yet.
2. Where do you think you've encountered it before?
In the kitchen? During a walk? At a market? In a wine you tasted some time ago?
3. What could you associate it with?
Now try to identify a fruit, flower, spice or another specific reference.
Finally, reveal the name of the aroma.
Did you recognise it? Or did your memory lead you somewhere completely different?
The interesting part isn't simply checking whether you got the answer right. It's observing the path your mind took to get there.
You can repeat the game with three different aromas and discover which ones you recognise immediately and which require a few more associations.
The Same Scent, Different Memories
Another curious aspect of smell is that the same olfactory stimulus can evoke different descriptions.
An aroma that one person associates with a flower might remind someone else of a cosmetic product, a particular place or an everyday object.
This partly depends on individual experiences and the references each person has stored in their memory.
Familiarity with a scent also influences our ability to identify it.
That's why, during a group wine tasting, different people may describe the same wine in different ways.
Of course, individual differences in olfactory sensitivity also exist, and not every association describes a product's aromatic profile with the same degree of accuracy.
Comparing impressions with other tasters therefore remains valuable: it helps distinguish personal associations from more widely recognised and shared aroma descriptors.
Olfactory Memory Is Built One Aroma at a Time
How can we make aroma recognition easier and more immediate?
A good starting point is regular practice, without trying to memorise too many scents at once.
For example, choose three aromas from the same family: cherry, blackberry and plum.
Smell them separately and try to identify what makes each one different.
Then associate each aroma with a specific image or personal experience.
The following day, try recognising them without looking at the labels.
Repeat the exercise a few days later.
The aim is to build increasingly strong connections between perception, memory and language.
Later, you can try to identify those same notes in wine, where different aromatic compounds coexist and interact, making recognition more complex.
It's a useful exercise both for those following a wine education course and for experienced tasters who want to keep their olfactory memory well trained.
A Personal Library of Scents
We can think of olfactory memory as a library.
Every scent we encounter, recognise and associate with a name adds a new reference.
Some are easy to retrieve. Others need to be rediscovered.
Through practice, we learn to organise this personal library more effectively and expand the language we use to describe what we smell.
The TasterPlace Aroma Collections are designed to support this process.
The aroma samples allow you to focus on individual aromatic references, while the accompanying publications help you understand them and connect them to the world of wine tasting.
From the fruity and floral notes of white wine to the spicy, fruity and ageing-related aromas of red wine, each scent becomes an opportunity to train recognition and memory.
Because our sense of smell, just like our memory, benefits from attention and practice.
And the next time a scent seems familiar but you can't quite name it, try not to search for the answer straight away.
First, ask yourself where you've encountered it before.
Perhaps the name will come after the memory.
