Streisand nose pinch
A wine rep excused himself from a winemaker’s dinner recently in Ashland between Course Four and the final Course Five. Seconds before he returned to the room, everyone was happily clucking about the experience they just had: generous pours of fine Pinot Noir from one of the best wineries in the Willamette Valley. No one had anything negative to say…
Until the wine rep returned, reeking of the cigarette he’d gone outside to puff. The memories of pleasant aromas, flavors, tastes went out the door. Suddenly, all anyone could detect was the haunting smell of smoke.
Yuck.
Most of us would be forgiven for detonating a powerful scent bomb during a wine tasting. But the rep definitely should have known better.
So in the interest of educating everyone, here’s a copy of the story I wrote on tasting room scent etiquette that appears in this month’s Oregon Wine Press. Please read the original by clicking on this link:
On-the-Nose Advice
By Janet Eastman
Wine appreciator Tina Ellis of Ashland can barely breathe, let alone evaluate the Pinot Noir before her. That's because a fellow taster flooded himself in aftershave before arriving at this winemaker's dinner, and his musky smell now hangs in the air like a sailor's old mattress. Didn't he know that tasting is all about the nose?
We've all experienced scent shock. Tobacco, cologne and fragrant creams are the worst culprits. But even the mildest whiff of almost anything can affect how we react to wine. People who truly want to unravel all of a wine's flavors avoid gum and even lipstick long before they sip.
But who hasn't absentmindedly tossed back peanuts, popped a breath mint or dabbed on lotion minutes before entering a wine tasting environment? Those olfactory oops not only can ruin your experience, but also everyone else's.
The burden of keeping a tasting room and its crew free of distracting smells weighs on winery owners. They do what they can. They locate their building far away from stinky factories and cattle ranches. They outfit their tasting rooms like specifically engineered cleanrooms, void of dust collectors, fresh flowers, scented candles, room sprays, odor eliminators, incense or even dryer sheets that leave dishtowels with a faux aura of "fresh spring." They ask their wine pourers to bathe with scentless soap and show up for their shifts sans camphoraceous tea tree oil.
What they can't control is you. You can breeze in and upset the atmospherics in seconds. And the scent taint can linger.
"When someone comes in with gum, I have them discard it and eat some crackers," said a usually gracious Scott Ratcliff of Volcano Vineyards in Bend. "But then that minty gum smell stays in the tasting room until I empty the garbage. Gross."
Gum is a lot easier to dispose of than bolder bouquets. Laura Lotspeich of Trium grows lavender, distills the oil and sells bottles of it in her Talent tasting room. She seals the bottles to prevent a scent leak. But despite her cautionary actions, she still could not see this one coming: "A family purchased a bottle of the oil, drenched their little girl in it and managed to drive all of us out of the tasting room," Lotspeich remembered. It took an hour for open doors and windows to clear the air. "There have been a few other people who have visited with overpowering patchouli oil," she added.
Posting a "No Scent Bombs Please" reminder sign is worthless. By the time someone sees it, says Martha Wagner of Elk Cove Vineyards in Gaston, it's too late. Besides, adds Ratcliff, there's so much snobbery associated with wine that shaming someone won't engender a second visit. He's found that the beginning wine enthusiast or someone who's only there for the party aspect usually commits these olfactory offenses.
But wine tasting is supposed to be fun, so why all this serious talk about ambient odor? Is it really that important? Some experts say yes. You'll pick up smells consciously and, studies show, unconsciously. Both alter your experience.
Marketing research studies reveal that wine retailers can trick your taste buds. People can be nudged to like or dislike a wine by modifying the "smellscape" of an environment. If a room is spritzed with a spicy aroma, most of us will favorably notice the spicy aroma in a Merlot and want to have more. But when we take that wine home, it just doesn't taste the same.
Click here to read more of the story, including Odor Do's and Don'ts
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