Oct

29

I saw this clever book on Amazon: "The Essential Scratch and Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert: Take a Whiff of That" by Richard Betts.

Perhaps a scratch and smell investment guide in a humorous vein would be a fun thing too. One conjectures that if investments had attached smells that many longshots (and decaying ventures) would be avoided and bargains would be more readily identifiable.

My environmental geologist snoozle became very adept at detecting 50 ppm or greater ("impacted") hydrocarbon levels in soils–but that is another story. At any rate, back to articles about the book:

1. "Knock wine off its pedestal. That's the goal of wine expert Richard Betts. And he has come up with a brilliant way to do it: a scratch n' sniff guide to the aromas and flavors of the wine world. With beautiful illustrations from Wendy MacNaughton, the 10-page board book looks like it belongs with your kid's toys instead of next to The Joy of Cooking.But don't let the playfulness fool you. There's some serious wine science in Bett's new book, The Essential Scratch and Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert."

2. 'Betts points out that all we actually taste is sweet, sour, salty and bitter.

"Everything else we experience comes from our sense of smell. And we can break that down into three specific areas that define all wine: fruit, earth and wood, oak in particular."

Earth is the toughest one to explain, he says, but as soon as he invites people to recall the smell of potting soil or river mud from a camping trip, they get it. For fruit, it's red fruit or black fruit. For oak, if it's American it smells one way, French another way. '


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