The Nose Knows

Rarely a day goes by in my life where I don't happily spritz on the Chanel No.5. I've been wearing it for decades, I still love it, and see no reason to change.

However, if I'm going to a wine tasting, wine festival, or any sort of wine event, I avoid the perfume and other smelly-good items all day, resorting to unscented products.

Why? Well, I may not be able to smell my own perfume after a while, but other people can. The last thing a wine drinker needs when trying to identify aromas are the warm scents that emanate from Chanel no 5.

I wish that servers in restaurants would also follow this rule. Okay, if you work at a non-wine related place, or a place that doesn't specialize in the most quality dishes, then perfume is probably okay. But I don't want to order a glass of wine and smell the White Diamonds from my server combining with my sauvignon blanc. I don't want to smell Ralph Lauren cologne when I've ordered a delectable entree that smells as good as it tastes.

A lot of folks don't realize that their choice of smelly-good stuff can actually affect the nose and the palate of those around them. In fact, a large part of our ability to taste is through the nose. Our taste buds allow us to correctly identify sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. But the flavors? That's through our nose.

Many flavors are recognized mainly through the sense of smell. If you hold your nose while eating chocolate, for example, you will have trouble identifying the chocolate flavor, even though you can distinguish the food's sweetness or bitterness. This is because the familiar flavor of chocolate is sensed largely by odor. So is the well-known flavor of coffee. This is why a person who wishes to fully savor a delicious flavor (e.g., an expert chef testing his own creation) will exhale through his nose after each swallow. (AAO-HNS)

So next time you attend a wine event, hold off on the perfume or cologne and instead, enjoy the aromas of the wine.