The nose

of a spirit is linked to the human organ of that name only in roundabout fashion. In sensory evaluation, the term loosely describes a particular spirit’s diverse volatile compounds as they are perceived through the nose; it is an important, perhaps

Sensory evaluations of any spirit will include precise descriptions of its “nose,” but not all tasters may be sensitive to all the volatile compounds that create olfactory sensations or have the sensory vocabulary to describe what they are smelling. Nonetheless, professional sensory analysis is expected to define the nose as closely as possible by noting both those odorants that are identifiable—for example, common descriptors such as lemon and black pepper in white (unaged) spirits and vanilla and caramel in barrel aged ones—and those that lie below the identification threshold of some tasters. For more casual tasters, a few descriptors will suffice to describe the nose of a spirit or cocktail. Many experienced tasters cultivate far more elaborate, even impressionistic, vocabularies to express a spirit’s nose, particularly if their work is meant to be published.

See also aroma and sensory evaluation.

Beauchamp, Gary K., and Linda Bartoshuk. Tasting and Smelling, 2nd ed. San Diego: Academic Press, 1997.

Buxton, Ian, and Paul S. Hughes. The Science and Commerce of Whisky. Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry, 2015.

Nykänen, Lalli, and Heikki Suomalainen. Aroma of Beer, Wine and Distilled Beverages, Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1983.

Wolfe, Jeremy M., Keith R. Kluender, and Dennis M. Levi. Sensation and Perception, 3rd ed. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, 2012.

By: Doug FrostSee also aroma, sensory evaluation.