Any oenophile will tell you that the best way to learn about wine is by drinking more wine and on a regular basis. For someone who cannot afford the more upmarket and classy bottles of wine in the market, the learning process might become a little steep. The best wines are a bit more complicated in terms of contents and aroma. Sophistication, culture, and alluring lore is the halo that envelops high wine pedigree and often justifies that hefty price tag. It’s assumed that only a connoisseur would figure out what a particular bottle of wine entails. However, for regular wine drinkers who haven’t mastered the art of telling different wine aromas, there is hope with the help of aroma kits.
You don’t have to be stuck in a world where you can only identify regular aromas like banana or coffee. You can be easily turned into a wine pro and develop the nose of a sommelier if you invest in a good aroma kit. These kits will help you in identifying aromas from wines you haven’t encountered yet like truffle, red currant, and lychee.
For a sommelier, identifying various aromas is an essential requirement that will make their work easier. For wannabe sommeliers, they have to go through tests to prove that they can indeed tell what each consists of and smells. Therefore for these two, an aroma kit can be of great use for them.
Some people do not see the need to be a wine nerd, especially when they aren’t planning on doing wine business. It is essential to learn some things about wine as when you are hosting guests; this will come in handy when preparing meals, certain types of meals work better with specific kinds of aromas in wines. If your sense of smell is perfect then you can identify and enjoy various wine brands. However, the likelihood of getting certain scents confused is high. To hack your way into becoming a wine nerd, here are some aroma kits that will help you identify the type of wine that has been served to you even without looking at the wine. Therefore, the aroma kits are for everyone, you never stop learning, plus sometimes over-confidence can humble you when least expected. The following are some of the best wine aroma kits in the market.
Aromabar
If you are looking to stop being an amateur and become a professional wine taster, this is the kit you are to go for. If you have a budding wine-loving friend, this is what to buy them as a gift if you intend to make an impression. If you are looking for a father’s day gift for a man who loves wine, you do not have to buy them socks every year; this kit has you covered. This type of kit has various versions ranging between 60 vial kits to 12 vial kits, which focus on a particular sub-category. The 60 vial kit goes for $485 while the 12 vial kits go for $ 70 and have various aromas ranging from 13 to 88. Let’s focus on the 12 vial kit, which is the least expensive of all the Aromabar versions in the market.
With an 8 star rating, this wine aroma kit helps you to categorize complex fruits that are familiar by names but hard to identify by smell. The Aromabar scents extract from the original fruit and some alcohol-based distillates that have an authentic and robust aroma.
The Pro: The 12 vial kit is affordable for everyone and a worthy asset to have as it does not have many risks.
The Con: The 12 vial kit is too narrow and restricting because it does not have
wood centric aromas plus the white wine aromas.
Aromaster
This is a huge master wine aroma kit that goes for close to $400. This massive kit has a total of 88 aromas arranged in a grid and is super hard to understand. This kit offers you 23 distinctive fruit smells, 20 barrel scents, and nine flowers. It is recommended that you ensure the cover is always tight because a single drop escape would leave a room in a messy smell.
The Pro: with 88 aromas of different categories, this kit has you spoilt for
choice.
The Con: compared to the Aromabar kit, the aromas in this kit are a bit unclear and unpleasant. All the Aromaster aromas involve oils, both natural and chemical reproduced. Most are accurate, but some are also not original, and there is no recommendation for the unusual aromas. Due to these drawbacks, this aroma kit
has a 6-star rating.
Le Nez Du Vin
As a wine lover, there are tons of opportunities to sniff things that are win descriptors. For those looking for smelling experiences, this is the kit to help you do that. It is considered to be one of the best aroma kits in the market. It has fewer vials than Aromaster as it only has 54 aromas and costs $400.
With a 9 star rating, this aroma kit is a mixture of wine scents and extracts. These aromas are very authentic and are stronger than Aromabar.
The Pro: it helps you improve your sense of smell and is the best wine education kit in the market.
The Con: The blackberry vial in Le Nez du Vin aroma kit is not clear, and it is expensive but has fewer aromas.
40 Aroma Red and White Wine Aroma
This kit would make a perfect gift to your loved one as it helps identify 40 most well-known wine aromas. For a wine amateur, this kit will help upgrade your wine vocabulary so that you can make wine orders confidently. With this kit, your sense of smell improves rapidly, and you can differentiate different aromas in various wines. Knowing the smell of wines is essential as this is how to get to decide which scent tasted as good or as bad it smelled. The cost for this kit is $228 and comes with a black matte case that stores all the materials that can be displayed or carried to a wine tasting event.
The Pro: Allows you to detect the scent of both red and white wines.
The Con: as much it allows recognition of both the red and white wines aromas, sometimes the scents in each type of wine are different and confusing.
Red Wine Aroma Kit
This is a sommelier recommended wine aroma kit for best wine tasting and scent recognition. This aroma kit can be used for both personal/ home-based use and professionally. This is recommended for red wine lovers as it allows identification and memorization of aromas found in this specific type. For a red wine amateur, this is the best aroma kit to expose them to red wine and help in distinguishing aromas of in red wine.
This kit has 24 vials and goes for $200.
The Pro: It is the best guide for someone looking into red wine education and red wine tasting skills.
The Con: It is limited in that you can only test the taste of red wine, so if you wanted to learn on both red and white, you have to buy a white aroma kit.
Master Kit 60 Wine Aroma Kit
This is a 60 vial aroma kit that tests the scents of the most famous wines in the market, and that’s why it’s called a master kit. It is a unique master collection in that the Magnum edition is well equipped. It has updated wine education instruments that will improve your memory of aromas. The master collection is in a single in one box and, therefore, easily portable and accessible. You do not need to worry about spillage either as a viscosity gel tightens the new version. The best thing about this master kit is the improved shelf life with less likelihood of evaporation, no matter the pressure and temperature.
The master aroma kit has a 50 page printed book with guides that help you learn more about the master collection. This is the most detailed aroma kit sourced from 30 wine experts. It is currently selling at $359.
The Pro: It is detailed and, therefore, sufficient for amateurs and professionals.
The Con: It is expensive, and although worth the price, it is not affordable for
everyone.
White Wine Aroma Kit- 12 Aromas
This kit allows you to identify and master aromas found in white wines and champagne. For a white wine amateur, this is the ideal kit for you that will make you a white wine pro in no time. It has a leather-bound bookcase that has 12 vials, an aroma card with ten different languages, and the aroma wheel. It goes for $99.
The Pro: it is avoided yet a tremendous white wine education tool.
The Con: you can only learn about white wine aromas, so if you are looking to learn
about white wine, this kit limits you.
White Wine Aroma Kit- 24 Aromas
Are you looking to improve your white wine aroma recognition skills, this is yours to go to aroma kit. Do you have a friend who loves white wine and would like to master their tasking skills? This is an ideal gift to give them. It has 24 vials, an aroma card with ten different languages, and an aroma wheel. Therefore if you are looking for a detailed white wine aroma kit, this is what you should think about.
The Pro: it is detailed and advanced than the 12 aroma version.
The Con: it is expensive as a white-only aroma kit.
20 Aroma White Aroma Kit and Wine Aroma Wheel
Wine fans who feel intimated by their lack of knowledge of wines should not feel intimated. This kit awakens your sense of smell and helps you improve your tasting skills by guiding you using 20 aromas in the market. If you are looking for a gift, you need not be stressed on what to get your wine fan friend as this is an excellent idea of a gift.
If you are looking to advance from being an amateur of white wine to a pro that remembers all the white wine aromas, this is what you are looking for. Your olfactory senses will also be significantly improved, and you can foretell what the taste of the wine you just swirled is going to be even before you taste it.
This kit has a black matte case that contains 20 vials and a two-sided aroma
wheel that is laminated. This laminated aroma wheel determines the category,
sub-category, and close scents linked to this aroma kit. It has a colorful
booklet that contains a menu for usage, different aromas found in distinctive
wines, and the profile of the wine.
The Pro: It is a great detailed white wine aroma kit and, therefore, an excellent
guide for a white wine lover.
The Con: It is limiting; you can only learn about white wine.
Go ahead and invest in one of the excellent wine aroma kits, for sharper senses, for good times, for that next dinner when you host your wine-loving friends. You can be the sweet show-off with the sophisticated nose of a true sommelier. See yourself at the dinner table, going around as you pour them a flute of Cremant de Limoux and regale them with the finer aromatic details of sparkly French champagnes. Well, because you are that wine guy. Their Wine guy.