Fruit Aromas in Wines

Video Transcript

"One of the most common categories of wine aromas is fruit. I usually tell my students that about seventy five percent of the wines that you smell, the first aroma that you smell will be fruit. It makes sense, since wine is made from fruit. White wine, you can usually smell the fruit in the bottom of the glass. White wine usually will smell like lemons, or limes, or lemon-lime, maybe green apple, maybe apricot, maybe pineapple, or mango, or peach, or pear, or maybe a little bit of plum. Those are very common aroma descriptors of white wine. Sparkling wine will probably be a little bit more like melon, cantaloupe, or even kind of like a fruit cocktail, or tutti fruity . Sparkling wine sometimes has a few other aromas that jump out of the glass before the fruit aromas, but if you search you'll find them. Red wine (it makes sense) usually smells like a red fruit. In the bottom of the glass you'll probably smell cherries and berries; cherry berry, we call it. Cherries; black cherries, red cherries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, cranberries, sometimes strawberries, and also in a red wine you might smell a little more dried fruit; like a raisin, or a date, or a fig. Those are all very common. Red wine also sometimes smells like currant, and sometimes red wine smells more like a jam, or a jelly, or more like a concentrated fruit than a fresh fruit, so you can say blackberry jam, or strawberry jam. Whatever you call it, you'll always get some fruity aromas in a wine. You may have to look for it, but they'll be there."