Wine Smells

Posted by Simon Davies May 14, 2007

Some scientists have all the luck!

The Spanish are famous for their wine, so it is apt that they should also study it. A group of researchers at the University of Zaragoza have been trying to find out which chemicals cause the smells in wine, and they have made an important breakthough recently.

Wine is such a complex mix of ingredient chemicals that it is not as simple as just separating the different chemicals and smelling them. This is because the chemicals actually interact with one another to either enhance or suppress certain smells. The chemists had previously discovered a compound which gives the fruity smell, called an ester.

Their research involved making mixtures of just some of the wine constituents and then having a panel of "smellers" who would try out the odours. They found that some chemicals, for example ethanol, a major component of wine, suppressed the scent of the esters. Others,however, enhanced the smell.

I just hope that this research does not lead to artificially produced or enhanced wines. Just keep an eye on those cheap Spanish wines!