If I'm going to list one passion in my life, except perfume, friends and family, that would be wine. In order to pursuit this hobby, in a somewhat structured and seriously looking manner, me and some friends have a small wine circle. That means we meet up for themed wine tastings at one anothers homes every three weeks or so.
One of the members in our group has invested in the box depicted above. It's a 54 piece collection of little bottles and in every one of them there is liquid that smells like a scent note that is present in wine. For instance, there are "Lemon", "Hay", "Musk", "Dark Chocolate", "Yeast" and many others. There are also descriptions of all the notes and some info about what notes are found in what type of wine.
I found this idea sooooo nifty, I'd love to have a scent library with "clean" notes to turn to for reference. Smelling the bottles is a little bit tricky, though. I found that you have to hold them at a precise distance from your nose while smelling. If they are to close the main note gets obscured by the carrier and if they are to far away tou won't pick anything up. 20 cm (say 8 inches) from the nose seemed to be ideal.
Another thing I realised when smelling those samples is that I'm completely anosmic to the musk included in the box. This has made me thinking, the notes that I've interpreted as musk before, is that musk but another kind than in the box? Or is it something that perfumers tend to put in perfumes to go with musk? I've no idea. One thing is for sure, I'll pay more attention to second opinions whenever wearing musk heavy secnts from now on...
The box is sold by a company named "Le Nez du Vin" and in the picture is their "big box" containing notes from all different types of wines. There are also smaller sets available for red wine, white wine, coffee, notes one get from oaking wine and there is one set with smells of defects, as well.
Pics and more info at:
Le Nez du Vin
