The aroma of a spirit or mixed drink is the perceived sum of the diverse volatile compounds contained within it to which the human nose is sensitive (sometimes it is called the drink’s “nose”). Because people differ widely in their abilities to smell and identify many compounds, in this context aroma can only ever be an imprecise term: one person’s “burnt rubber and road tar” is another person’s “pineapple and hogo.” See hogo.
The word “aroma” also has a specific and limited application in the wine industry, where it is used to describe the primary odorants of a young wine; as the wine ages, aroma evolves into “bouquet” as a secondary set of odorants slowly replaces the primary ones.
The spirits industry lacks a similar technical vocabulary, which is to a degree understandable due to the great diversity of base materials and flavor compounds. Nonetheless, there are commonalities between spirits stemming from factors such as length of fermentation, type of distillation, and length of aging that could serve as a basis for such a vocabulary. It would be welcome.
See also aging; bouquet; sensory evaluation; smell, the sense of; and tasting spirits.
Finger, Thomas, and Wayne Silver. Neurobiology of Taste and Smell. Malabar, FL: Krieger, 1991.
Wolfe, Jeremy, Keith Kluender, and Dennis Lem. Sense and Perception, 3rd ed. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer, 2011.
By: Doug Frost