In Spinning The Bottle, a book on wine PR by Harvey Posert and Paul Franson (which can be purchased by following the link on Tom Warks blog), there is an interesting case study on a “sniffer exhibit” that St. Supery in Napa installed in the entrance to their tasting room. The exhibit, dubbed Smellavision, allowed visitors to smell 4 concentrated aromas that are commonly found in Cabs, and 4 aromas that are found in Sauvignon Blancs. Besides just being a cool idea for an exhibit, Smellavision bred confidence in the folks who toured it, and they were more vocal and excited at the tasting room bar. Some quick palate education turned them into more engaged wine consumers.

EDIT: Though I’m not sure if it turned them into heavier wine buyers. Thankfully the CEO of St. Supery, Michaela Rodeno, will be speaking at the OIV wine marketing conference starting next week. I’ll have to ask her.

Well according to New Scientist (via The Willetts on Wine), Japanese researchers are working on a device that can record aromas just like you might record a lecture or photograph a scene.

IMAGINE being able to record a smell and play it back later, just as you can with sounds or images.

Engineers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan are building an odour recorder capable of doing just that.

Somboon’s system will use 15 chemical-sensing microchips, or electronic noses, to pick up a broad range of aromas. These are then used to create a digital recipe from a set of 96 chemicals that can be chosen according to the purpose of each individual gadget. When you want to replay a smell, drops from the relevant vials are mixed, heated and vaporized. In tests so far, the system has successfully recorded and reproduced the smell of orange, lemon, apple, banana and melon. “We can even tell a green apple from a red apple,” Somboon says.

Ed over at Willetts suggests using the device to take a snapshot of wine and cataloguing it for later, but I tend to think that wine will probably be a little too complex for this little marvel to handle. However, I can see it being an interesting tool for people to use to learn the common sensory components of wine, which are much simpler. Kind of like Smellavision, but from the comfort of your home.

I know that it would be cool to offer a downloadable file from the Capozzi site with preloaded Pinot noir aromas for our customers to download. We’ll have to wait and see if this device ever makes it to market.