What A Lovely Bouquet
What A Lovely Bouquet
Inhale the floral aromas in your favorite wines
Summer is coming. One of the best parts of the warm weather is the flowers blooming everywhere. Whether it’s purple violets underfoot, orange blossoms raining fragrant, or roses sprouting in manicured flowerbeds, it’s an intoxicating time of year for flower lovers.
The beauty of the season for the wine enthusiast is that many of wine’s aromas remind us of our favorite flowers. Here’s a cheat sheet for finding wines with the most identifiable floral aromas:
Orange blossom
Enjoy sidling up to an orange tree in bloom? You’ll find the scent of these white blooms in Moscato d’Asti. These fresh and balanced Italian dessert wines — especially when made with Muscat canelli grapes like this Saracco 2010 Moscato d’Asti (Piedmont, Italy) $16 — are especially fragrant.
Violet
The elusive fragrance of violets can be found in a range of red wines. You can pick out violets in from the bouquets of the Italian grape nebbiolo like the Tenuta 2004 L’Illuminata Tebavio Barolo (Piedmont, Italy) $60, malbecs, red Burgundies and even affordable Bordeaux like the 2010 Baron de Brane (Margaux, France) $29.
Rose
An elegant red rose aroma can waft out of glasses of pinot noir, that most aromatic of grapes. The pinots that come from the cool climate in Anderson Valley — like the Maggy Hawk 2007 Afleet Pinot Noir (Anderson Valley, California) $68 —offers terrific rosy aromas, as does carignane.
Honeysuckle
If this sweet honeyed fragrance is the one you love then pour a glass of viognier. The aroma of honeysuckle blossoms burst from the sensuous Miner Family 2010 Simpson Vineyard Viognier (California, USA) $20.
What’s your favorite wine with a fresh-from-the-flower-garden aroma? Tell us here.
Tags: wine, flowers, summer, floral aromas



