We all smell different

Ask someone what they think their wine smells of and, odds-on, they might say something different from you. That’s because wine aromas aren’t the same for everyone and are possibly as unique to each person as a fingerprint – so says Dr Charles Wysocki of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, an organisation devoted to taste and smell. ‘Humans have only a few hundred stimuli for taste, but can distinguish thousands of different smells,’ he explained. And apparently some people cannot detect certain smells at all – musk, for example, isn’t picked up by 43 per cent of people. Other wine aromas which are commonly not detected include bananas, pears and floral scents. So now you can be brave when asked to describe a wine, because whatever you say, no one can say you’re wrong – that’s how you smell it!