wine making smells you love

[ms67]

While making my latest batch of green tea & ginger wine the wonderful smells of the ingredients kept me happy while doing the tedious and repetative stuff. So i'm wondering what smells you love that are part of the brewing process (at any stage).

for me its zests (lemons, limes and oranges), and elderflowers that get my motor running.

[wisp]

The immediate aroma that jumped to mind with me was not with wine but beer. It's that smell you get when the beer is just on ready for bottling. It takes me back to when I was a child and you'd walk past pubs and get that 'real ale' waft. It would set me salivating even at the age of five.

[NorthernWiner]

I like the smell (usually ) when you punch down a large vessel of fermenting red grapes. Sometimes the initial aroma and release of CO2 almost knocks you over, like a big fruity punch in the face.

And a bit weird, but I also like the cheesy/dairyish smell of malolactic fermentation.

[goldseal]

I like the smell (usually ) when you punch down a large vessel of fermenting red grapes. Sometimes the initial aroma and release of CO2 almost knocks you over, like a big fruity punch in the face.

You are right - not a strictly pleasant smell, but the sort of smell that tells you that fermentation is under way, and all is well with the world

I like the simple yeasty smell you get just before the starter goes in.

[ms67]

hehe, funny reading this so far .... you bunch of technicians looking for (and getting) reassurances. i wasn't expecting answers like these, what a nice surprise!

the beery smell is a good one too, back in the day while being driven along the dock road in Liverpool to visit my Nana, we often used to get a huge smell of the brewery. My Dad always exclaimed his delight - as he did with "countryside" smells too. These days i also love the smells that come when i pass a brewery.

[wisp]

trust Liverpool to have the brewery smells! Not so much these days though; sadly.

[wisp]

Having said what I've said about old pubs and real ale ... Liverpool used to be saturated with the awful smells coming from Tate & Lyle and sugar - the odour would make your nails curl!

[spritzer]

I love a smell, that I dont get from wine, but from driving through Glasgow, late at night, or early morning...
Its from the whisky bonds ....
I just love the smell
Which, is quite bizarre, as I dont like whisky

[ms67]

hehe, i'm really enjoying this thread. So far only two of us like the smells associated with wine-making (cos it smells good!). Surely the rest of us can't be making brews that only ever smell whiffy and so dash outside to replace such offences to the nostrils with whisky, beer or bread smells.

Don't get me wrong, i'm not being funny about posts, i love how the thread is running, and theres no rules about how many smells you want to post either.

i also like the smells of freshly ground spices, coffee, garlic on my fingers after a big garlic crushing/chopping session and garlic frying and methi (fenugreek leaves) on my hands after rubbing it into a pan of curry-to-be.

[Cellar_Rat]

Carpet glue !! have got to be THE best.

No, no, not the stuff for fixing the Axminister. THE very first day, you come back to your red grape mash, after inoculation. And it only lasts one day. THIS is the smell. Steve and Pete have said it before - everything is right with the world.

My father came round one morning last year during ferment - I had 6/700 liters on the go - we went to see it and punch down first thing in the morning. I got halfway through and he said (coughing) "do you know I think we are drowning". He was of course right!

But what a lovely smell!!