Identifying Aromas and Flavors

I've found that all the tips WSET gives you to test appearance, nose and palate are very useful. You can find my WSET3 notes below if you're interested in these hints. Keep in mind, I've also add other information I've come across to these notes as well. Nevertheless, identifying aromas and flavors is a whole different story, especially if you've never comes across some of the aromas and flavors. For example, the first time I ever came across quince was just this year in Melbourne when it came with a cheese plate as a type of jelly. Quince, by the way, is a tart Asian apple that is often made into aromatic jellies and jams. Anyways, I found Wine Folly to be an incredibly useful source in helping me to identify aromas and flavors. The book list the aromas/flavor profiles for all of the wines covered in WSET2 and almost all of the wines in WSET3. When I do tastings at home, I turn to the profile of the wine I was tasting and read through all the possible aromas/flavors for the wine. I then smell and taste the wine to see how many of the aromas/flavors I can match to the ones in the book. What I really like about Wine Folly is that it points out the different profiles you'll come across for a variety in a cool, moderate and warm climate. I also often use the Wine Folly color descriptors since they offer more nuance than the WSET ones. 

When I do tastings at my local wine shop, I try my best to get as many aromas and flavors as possible. When I get home, I check them against the Wine Folly profiles, and add any that I might've missed or couldn't recall at the wine shop. I've found that doing this again and again has been a great help in building my "wine memory."