We’ve used scent training in our winemaking programs for years. It’s a core part of our curriculum. In 2020, I was part of the team that began developing our own scent kits.
While filming the online version of our Core Winemaker program, we began thinking about creating a series of scent kits to accompany our classes. After six months of development, we produced a series of scents for training winemakers.
Key Aspects of a Wine Scent Kit
Build the Scents!
Developing a kit is more challenging than it seems. First, you need a scent lab capable of creating hundreds of different wine scents. Each scent requires at least ten compounds, necessitating a library of several thousand compounds.
For instance, creating the realistic smell of a Honeycrisp apple—a common scent in white wines—is complex. To achieve the “Apple” scent included in our “White Wine Aroma Kit,” I start with Ethyl Butyrate, Hexyl Acetate, and 2-Methylbutyl Acetate to evoke the apple scent. To perfect it, I add Ethyl Acetate to mimic ripeness. Then, I include 1-Hexanol and Trans-2-Hexenal to replicate green apple skin. Depending on the desired complexity, I might add Methional for an over-ripe apple note or Acetaldehyde and Hexyl Butyrate for a more intricate apple scent. Additionally, Benzyl Acetate can be added to evoke apple flowers, creating an orchard-like aroma.
A comprehensive wine aroma kit must include all common fruit scents and those unique to specific wine varietals, such as the grassy smell of Sauvignon Blanc and the ginger note of Viognier.
Chemical Accuracy
Aromas need to accurately represent wine scents and flavors. For example, the grassiness in Sauvignon Blanc isn’t a pure grass smell; it’s more like a wet, moldy pile of grass, due to 2-Methoxy-3-isobutylpyrazine.
The creator of the scent kit must understand wine chemistry to know which compounds create specific wine scents. They also need the palate of a winemaker to recognize these scents and the skills of a perfumer to adapt them into liquid form. Without these skills, a scent kit is ineffective.
Why We Build Our Own Kits
When we started offering online winemaking courses, we needed a reliable solution. This led us to handcraft our own wine aroma kits to ensure quality control. Because they’re expensive, we don’t sell them on the open market.
Combined with Education
Scents alone are not enough. Winemaking students need to learn how to identify wine aromas and which specific ones to look for. Wines have layers of flavors. Top notes can be delicious fruit and oak, but you need to notice the underlying scents to understand how a wine is produced. That is why we pair our scent kits with educational classes; without that instruction, the kits are useless.
Types of Wine Aroma Kits
We offer a core set of wine aroma kits for winemaking programs and various others for specific certification courses and wine events.
- Varietal Fingerprint Kit: The most widely used, part of the L2 Online Course, includes core varietal fingerprint scents for all major wine varietals.
- Oak Barrel Flavors Kit: A personal favorite, focused on oak barrel aromas.
- Red Wine Aroma Kit and White Wine Aroma Kit: Specific kits for red and white wine aromas.
- Custom Aroma Kits for French Wine Regions: Including Bordeaux, Burgundy, and the Rhone Valley.
Pricing & Packaging of Our Aroma Kits
We use jewelry-quality boxes and perfumer-quality glassware for our kits. Depending on the kit, we number or color-code them. Each kit contains the essential 5-8 scents required for the class. We keep our wine aroma kits well-made and focused. We sell our kits at cost, as they are part of a class.