Something happened to my nose today. A great opening of the olfactory canals, the tiny hairs that feel and filter life’s parfum, stood at attention, saluted (politely, of course), the Sauvignon Blanc from Cloudy Bay and moved on to a 1997 Chardonnay from Napa Valley. And in an instant, I sensed a noseful, complete saturation, an awakening of this essential, primal sense.
 
This was not a door that fell on its hinges, but a door that had been carefully unlocked, with time and sensitivity, days of truffle-nosing the glass and just one peek inside revealed a new world.
Sensory analysis mixes statistics with individual and group psychology to arrive at a consensus of a certain food or wine product. When it comes to the nose, we often find ourselves entranced, and at the same time speechless, unable to communicate that which we are experiencing. It’s not just part and parcel of a beginner’s mind, stunned in the new details of a wine tasting.
The olfactory sense is pre-linguistic, before language, and is connected to the oldest part of our brains, otherwise known as the Paleomammalian brain. Emotions and memories are stored here. This is why one sniff of a great wine can make us swoon like a young lover meeting his beloved.
 
The human nose is capable of detecting 10,000 different scents. Many of these are tied to memory, the collective, genetic memory of humankind and the specific life experience that one brings to the tasting table.
The experiental nature of a wine’s nose intrigues the hell out of me, to be frank. It is the opposite of riding a bicycle (once you learn you never forget), and I do love a challenge. It is a constant, humbling pursuit. And of course, the identification of a list of olfactory responses is not an end unto itself.
 
Why does a Sauvignon Blanc talk to me about white peaches, citrus and lemongrass? Because it couldn’t think of anything better to say? Or is it because of the grape itself, the terroir, the human touch in the wine’s fermentation and eventual refinement? Now we’re talking. A sommellier is an investigator, on the train of a wine’s origin, identity, its very roots, and all the way back to the glass.