Le Nez Du Vin

[Tabby]

I saw these kits just recently in a wine accessory catalogue. They consist of tiny little bottles containing common wine aromas (x54 for larger kits, x25, and x12 for the smallest kit). I don't know how familiar you may be with them, but the larger kit contains "54 aromas encapsulated in individually numbered bottles to smell and to memorise; A separate checklist of the aromas in order to enable you to learn and identify them blind; 54 illustrated cards that describe the individual aromas in detail and indicate which typify which wines....." etc etc.

Now, apart from initially giving me a good laugh, I was wondering what your opinions would be on such kits? A complete waste of time when you should be drinking the real thing and not sniffing from miniscule bottles of fluid, or a valid means of increasing your wine knowledge without bothering your wine merchant?

By the way, these kits are NOT cheap. The 54 bottle kit costs (in English currency) £200.00!!! And these "bottles" are teeny tiny wee critters...

Your thoughts?

[Randy Caparoso]

Le Nez du Vin has been around for a while. When I got started in the business in the late '70s and early '80s a number of us used it as a reference -- particularly those of us who had spent less time in herb gardens, kitchens and the country in general. And believe me, we tasted a LOT of wine then -- getting together for blind tastings of 10, 20, 30 wines at a time once or twice a week. I can't make a value judgement, but I can tell you that it can be extremely useful if the listed aromatics (linden, juniper, blackcurrant, et al.) are totally foreign to you. Nothing to sneeze at, so to speak, if you are "serious."

[Jason]

I have not used these kits myself, but would have to agree with Randy from what I have heard about them.
It provides a strong reference aroma in its purity; very helpful for blind tasting.

[Thomas]

Many people have difficulty "remembering" smells and tastes, or at least associating them with other products like wine. The kit is a great trainer to get you to associate so that when you smell a particular wine that you think reminds you of something else, you can pin that something else down. After a while you begin to discover that many aromas indicate certain grape varieties and certain winemaking processes; then you are on your way toward becoming one of us wine bores...

Of course, you must be truly devoted to wanting to go that far to spend the 200 pounds.

[misterjive]

I have always wanted one of these kits, and donations can be made to the "Sniffs for Tots" program, c/o misterjive . . . .