Walking in a Wine Aroma Garden

Isabelle Lesschaeve Author

A conversation with a wine-tasting coaching client sparked this article. Two AI tools created the text and the video.

One of the biggest challenges in wine tasting is to describe the flavors you smell and taste in the wine.

The Wine Aroma Wheel, created by Dr. Noble at UC Davis, is a fantastic tool to learn the principles of aroma categorization.

Starting from the most generic aroma category, 

Fruity, Nutty, and Spicy, to breaking down into sub-categories, 
Citrus or Stone Fruits, 

to finding more precise labels.

Aroma categorization is one of the first concepts I teach to my students and coaching clients. 

How an AI tool narrates the principle of wine aroma categorization

From a session I recently held with Will (fake name, but actual situation), I wanted to experiment with a new AI tool promising to “turn long-form audio into ready-to-use content assets.” 

In other words, this tool creates a transcript of our recorded conversation, identifies key takeaways and questions to explore further, etc.

One of the unexpected outputs was called “Analogy.” 

The tool created a narrative describing how using the wine aroma wheel during a tutored tasting is similar to walking in a wine aromatic garden with a seasoned botanist.

I reproduced the script below, barely touched. I also turned it into a video using another AI tool. 

I let you appreciate the results.

Feel free to leave a comment below.

A Walk in a Wine Garden

By an AI tool.

Imagine you're walking into an immense, enchanting garden filled with a myriad of flowers, fruits, and herbs. 

Each plant in this garden represents a different flavor or aroma you might find in a glass of wine. Just as a seasoned botanist might use a field guide to identify and categorize the diverse plant life around them, wine tasters use an aroma wheel to navigate the complex bouquet of scents in their wine glass.

Now, as you meander down the garden's paths, Isabelle is your guide, helping you appreciate the nuanced fragrances: the zesty grapefruit, the sweet pineapple, and the floral whisper of a blooming peach tree. 

She explains that while the garden is filled with familiar scents, everyone's experience is personal—the rose might remind you of a perfumed letter or a vibrant summer's day.

Tasting a wine is like sitting down for a moment with each plant in the garden, feeling its texture, noting its color, and most importantly, inhaling its unique perfume.

Sure, you might come across a scent that doesn't neatly fit into your field guide—like a whiff of unexpected spice among the leaves—but that's the adventure of exploration. 

And remember, just as pinching your nose while strolling through the garden would make the flowers seem dull, tasting wine without the help of your sense of smell would leave your palate wanting.

As the sun sets on this flavorful exploration, Isabelle reminds you that this garden is always growing, always changing. 

New plants might appear, some might become more prominent with the changing climate, but it’s your individual journey through the flora that makes it a special and sensory-filled experience.

And the next time you visit? 

You'll be ready to compare the tastes of different gardens—err, wines—side by side, which is really just an invitation to expand your personal field guide of flavors. 

So, grab your wine aroma wheel—your very own map of this aromatic Eden—and...
...let each sip be both a discovery and a homecoming to the scents you cherish.

Published February 11, 2024

Categories: wine aroma wheel

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