Wine on the Radio - November 4, 2003     Listen

Wine Aroma Wheel

Sometimes trying to describe wine drives us nutty! That's why the Wine Aroma Wheel helps so much.

The University of California at Davis has the preeminent university program about viticulture and they developed the Wine Aroma Wheel. It's a visual, easy way to help learn and appreciate what we taste.

Picture this:

In the center of the circle are more general aroma characteristics of wine - then moving outward to the edge of the wheel the descriptors get more and more specific.

For example in the center it may say "fruity" then it progress outward to "citrus" and from there to lemon or grapefruit.

OK, so why should you care? Well, it's fun to try to figure out what you're tasting. Here's another kick - have a wine tasting party and see how many folks lit on similar descriptions. You can even print out pages from the web for guests to take along.

UC Davis Aroma Wheel  gives us a common language - almost as common as "Pop the Cork™!"