The more wine I taste and study, the more complicated and confused I’m getting. New discoveries have destroyed some of my previous knowledge about wine completely. Passion fruit, for instance, is the aroma I associated with NZ Sauvignon Blanc, which I like, but according to wine chemistry, it is one of flaws in wine, and so is the nutty aroma. Recently I’ve been obsessing with chemistry of wine, and some of the questions I had about “sulfite reduction and aromas” caused by the lack of oxygen have been answered through extensive reading and listening. Wine is becoming science at the moment, but I can’t wait to get back to tasting it as fantastic and delicious alchemical grape juice and just enjoying it. The biggest confusion came in a series of tasting events in the last week including Salon de Vignerons Independants, where I detected all kinds of aromas that I had only heard of but hadn’t smelt before. Some wines had very unmistakable off-odors such as cat’s pee, burnt match and cooked cabbage beyond the …