Wine Term: Nose
Variations: Bouquet, Aroma
Alternate Usages: On the nose, aromatics of, hints of, bouquet of, notes of
What it really means: The smell
While you’re correct that a wine “smells” a certain way, you’ll never want to say it that way, it is just uncivilized. Quickest way for someone else to say, “this person clearly doesn’t know wine…” even if you’re 100% correct in what you are identifying in the fragrance coming from the glass, is to talk about the smell of it.
How to effectively use it:
Quick fix, use “nose” or one of it’s variations in place of “smell” when speaking about it.
The wine has a nose of… The bouquet of the wine is filled with… On the nose I’m getting… There is a wonderful aroma of…
As it goes in the wine world, fluff is the stuff of high regards and recognitions, not only by way of what is in the glass, but who is consuming it. It is completely ok and sometimes in your best interest to add good sounding, unnecessary words, see below:
Although correct, bad idea: “This wine smells like blackberries.”
Better approach: “The wine has a nose of blackberries.”
Best approach (fluff it up): “The bouquet jumps out of the glass with pristine blackberry aromatics.”
If you fluffed it up, you sir, have just won yourself another taste on the house or something special that was unavailable to the “general public” as you are now no longer a general person in the eyes that matter!