The Question People Ask Just Before They Take a Sip of our wines

Many a times, during the different wine events we conduct, we find mny picking up their glass, giving it a quick swirl because everyone else seems to be swirling theirs, leans in to smell the wine, and then pauses.

"What am I supposed to be getting?"

It's a fair question. Wine has a habit of sounding more complicated than it really is. Read enough tasting notes and you'll find references to cedar, graphite, violets, cigar box, forest floor, black truffle and a dozen other things that most of us don't encounter in daily life nearly as often as wine writers apparently do.

What people actually tell us

The funny thing is that when we ask people what they smell, the answers are often much simpler.

Sometimes it's cherries, other times it's something that reminds them of a relative's kitchen, and we've even heard, "it's smells like a memory I can't quite place."

And occasionally, after looking slightly worried for a few seconds, they'll admit they just think it smells nice. But that's usually when the conversation gets more interesting, because the answers people remember most are rarely the technical ones. 

There is never a correct answer

If there's one thing about wine tasting that we strongly believe, it would be that wine is an agricultural product before it's anything else.

It changes from vintage to vintage, tasting different depending on where you open it, who you're sharing it with, what you've eaten beforehand and, sometimes, simply what sort of day you've had. 

Two people can drink the same bottle and come away with entirely different impressions. Neither is necessarily wrong. The longer we've shared our wines with people, the more we've come to appreciate that wine is at its best when it starts conversations.

So, we recommend be present in the moment and...

Over the years, we've noticed that the people who enjoy wine the most aren't always the ones who know the most technical terms. More often, they're the ones who feel comfortable trusting their own experience.

So if you're ever standing over a glass of Canon Chaigneau wondering what you're supposed to be smelling, tasting or noticing, here's our suggestion:

Start with what the wine reminds you of, and worry about the rest of the conversation later.