You are in Living Better . It's also an illustration of how ill-trained most people are when it comes to giving an accurate accounting of flavors. One group of professionals who would likely never use such an imprecise description of food is enologists, or wine studiers, some of whom met recently at a scientific meeting to discuss the vocabulary of taste.
Enologists can pinpoint specific flavors because they have been trained to do so.
And, they say, regular consumers can be trained to do the same thing. As part of that effort, Noble has come up with a flavor-teacher called the Wine Aroma Wheel. Of course, applying such terms is an enormous challenge when there are no visual clues to direct the senses. With training, a layperson can get to the point where he or she becomes conscious of all smells, not just wine smells, says Kenneth Fugelsang, PhD, professor of enology at the University of California, Fresno. People trained in the sensory sciences are very acutely aware of what's going on around them.