Aroma kits open up a new world for wine and whisky lovers

Nobody knows for sure how many aromas the human nose can detect, but a study conducted at New York's Rockefeller University, the results of which were published last year, estimates it is about a trillion.

This raises the bar considerably from the previously widely assumed 10,000 - but mercifully even that figure is much more than the number you need to be able to identify to properly appreciate a glass of fine wine or spirit, or a good cup of coffee. We experience all of those much more with our olfactory systems than with our tongues, which convey only a limited number of simple taste sensations.

"We generally don't train our senses to recognise aromas, which is probably what people struggle most with when they start tasting wine, because they haven't built up a catalogue of associations that come readily," says Amanda Longworth, head of marketing and wine services at Berry Bros & Rudd Hong Kong, who also runs the wine merchant's education programmes.

"Some people are better at it than others, but it's a matter of practice. You build up a catalogue of associations in your mind connected to what you can smell in the wine."

For more than 30 years wine educators have used aroma kits - collections of small bottles or vials containing essences of aromas to be found in wine - to help students identify and remember particular scents.