Wine Tasting Kit

[Fat Guy]

Just saw a wine tasting kit in a box (Complete Wine Tasting Kit: Includes Everything You Need to Stage a Blind Tasting for Six) at Barnes & Noble. At forty bucks (ะ on the Web site) it's a little steep, but it's ideal for someone who wants to conduct a blind tasting at home for a few friends and doesn't want to run all over creation acquiring real bottle-bags and such. Nice product. Has a book in there too.

[Katherine]

The International Wine Accessories http://iwawine.com catalog lists a tasting kit called "le nez du vin", with 54 glass vials of essences, for 躓. If it was in my budget to consider buying such a thing, I probable would have posted to find out whether anyone had an opinion on it.

[Fat Guy]

I have an opinion on it:

I want one!

[Liza]

Vintage New York offered a seminar last spring using "le nez du vin". They put 15 essences into 15 glasses of water, each essence representing one note of a potential positive aroma in a wine. Each participant went round the table, sniffing, and marking down what we thought each glass represented. The highest score (my brilliantly-nosed husband) detected 8 out of 15. It was tough. Lilac, grass, butter, cassis, apple, violet...

It was great fun and really interesting to hear now different noses identified the same smell. LOTS of "this is supposed to smell good????"

Apparently, there is a companion box, which features all the 'bad' smells you can detect in wines...

[cabrales]

Quote: from Katherine on 5:51 pm on Dec. 1, 2001

a tasting kit called "le nez du vin", with 54 glass vials of essences, for 躓

There was approximately the same number of little vials, in a light wooden box, at two places I visited recently.  The first is Fauchon Paris; the second, in the entryway of L'Esperance (in the glass-door cupboards directly across from the reception area).  I did not review the prices, though.

I wonder if one of the vials would contain the smell of "sous bois", or the damp smells of the grounds of a forest after it has rained.  (Also, one of the scents some might use to describe some of Veyrat's flavorings).  The smell of sous bois can be found in, among others, certain very old champagnes.  (Yes, I know one is not supposed to wait too long on champagnes. :) The less appreciated an item, though, the more readily it becomes available to those who prefer it.)

[Liza]

There was more of a simple grassy smell, rather than forest. I believe these are chemical compounds and aren't too complex. Each smell is supposed to be limited and identifiable - forest might be too multilayered to bottle into one vial.

[perge]

Sorry to resurrect such an old topic..... does anyone have any recent experience with "nez du vin" or a competing product (there's one called "Bacchanale" that seems significantly cheaper) they can share?

Are they worth the money? Are they worth the time? They seem gimmicky, and there doesn't appear to be tons of discussion about them in mainstream wine circles (at least on the web), but I'm intrigued nonetheless. Thanks in advance....

[winebill]

Found this on Berry Bros, Website.........

Hugh Johnson Criticises Jilly & Oz - 15-Oct-2003

Britain's bestselling wine writer Hugh Johnson has accused Jilly Goolden and Oz Clarke, of "attracting ridicule" to the beloved subject of his expertise. Johnson, whose annual Pocket Wine Book sells millions, said that his colleagues often sound as if they are talking about fruit salad rather than describing bottles of wine. "Jilly and Oz are wonderfully entertaining," Johnson, president of the 243-member Circle of Wine Writers, told an audience at the Cheltenham Festival of Literature. He said that there was no harm in that, but that it did attract a degree of ridicule.

"I don't really want my favourite subject to be ridiculed. There is a problem when these people list all these flavours and aromas they think they have detected. It then gets on to the label of the bottle and what you are looking at appears to be a recipe for fruit salad." He added: "That is not what a wine is like. It is not appley or blackcurranty. People don't sniff a rose and say, `Oh yes, pineapple, cucumber'. It smells like a rose — and a bottle of wine smells like wine. Too much of this borrowing of terms to describe wines really doesn't help."

So........... We need to enjoy wine more, and analyze less.

[Andre]

As far as the Nez du Vin - A good practice but there is nothing like the real thing. The market-place could be your best teacher. Also the term "cork" in the box is out of context; Is this supposed to reflect corky ? It does not.

Hugh Johnson is one of the best wine writers while Oz Clark stands for the friendly, less official wine guide. They are two oposites.