Question regarding SALTINESS...

I recently read a posting that said "saltiness on the nose", something that puzzled me. I've experienced a slight saltiness on the palate, but on the nose? Have any of you experienced this? Can we smell saltiness? What do you think?

I often find a sea-breeze-like scent in the whites I like to drink and sometimes I just dub this as saltiness in my notes. Could this be what was meant? I find that descriptors tend to be impressionistic rather than precise.

Otto, I have a friend who refers to this as 'ozone'.
Cheers,
Sue

Otto, I have a friend who refers to this as 'ozone'.
Cheers,
Sue

Considering that I do quite a few km/week in an ozone cleansed (rather than chlorine) pool I would equate that aroma more on the mineral side of these wines than the saltiness. Though I guess if I search my TNs I will find that I use the term salty minerality several times.... As I said, descriptors (mine at least) tend to be more impressionistic than precise, so everyones will be unique.

-O-

While I have no idea what the writer of said tasting note meant and salt in normal sized grains does not really have much of a smell, I propose the following experiment: Take ordinary table salt and pour it from some height onto a plate or something. Some salt dust will be release into the air during this process, the smell of which could be considered to be the smell of salt. So for me it is definitely kind of a minerally smell, while I guess for some the connection between salt and the sea is more what comes to their mind.
Cheers, Anders

Yeah, I think a "salty" smell is a cross between mineral and the sea.

I don't think I can honestly say I've ever smelled sodium chloride.

Yeah, I think a "salty" smell is a cross between mineral and the sea.

What do you mean by mineral in this context, Thomas? Obviously not the mineral halite (NaCl, i.e. salt).


Ozone can be interpreted several ways I guess. One definition I came across is "Ozone (from the Greek ozein "to smell") is a blue, pungent gas that is created whenever an electric discharge is passed through oxygen. It is often smelt after lightning, or near electrical equipment, or near the ocean, and is responsible for the familiar bracing smell of the seaside."

My friend's interpretation is obviously the last one, as that is how he explained it to me.

I just stuck my nose into a container of iodised salt, and then into a container of rock salt, and I can't really smell anything. It sure has taste, though.

Cheers,
Sue

Sorry if I am taking this off into an Ozone tangent, but if you equate ozone to sea air to saltiness, then perhaps what we are really smelling is dimethyl sulphide.

I've just come across this interesting article that pinpoints the ozone seaside smell as exactly that.

"Scientists from the University of East Anglia have discovered exactly what makes the seaside smell like the seaside – and bottled it!

The age-old mystery was unlocked thanks to some novel bacteria plucked from the North Norfolk coast.

Prof Andrew Johnston and his team at UEA isolated this microbe from the mud at Stiffkey saltmarsh to identify and extract the single gene responsible for the emission of the strong-smelling gas, dimethyl sulphide (DMS).

“On bracing childhood visits to the seaside we were always told to ‘breathe in that ozone, it’s good for you’,” said Prof Johnston.

“But we were misled, twice over. Firstly because that distinctive smell is not ozone, it is dimethyl sulphide. And secondly, because inhaling it is not necessarily good for you.” "

The full text is here ... http://comm.uea.ac.uk/press/release.asp?id=720

Cheers,
Sue

It makes sense that the smell is DMS. The oceans emit a lot of DMS, at about the same rate as man-made sources, which is really saying something because humans emit a lot of DMS through burning coal and such.

I've always heard that the smell after a static shock is the smell of ozone, which doesn't smell "salty" to me.

That whole seaside thing....we made a number of trips to the south Jersey shore over the years. And as we got closer, there was the distinctive aroma that told us we were on vacation!! Always a moment of celebration, usually meaning time to pop another 12 ouncer!

I sometimes get saltiness in Rhone Reds (Croze-Hermitage is a big offender) and Loire whites (Cour-Cheverny and often DD's Silex). Sea-spray is a good example. I like it.

I sometimes get saltiness in Rhone Reds (Croze-Hermitage is a big offender) and Loire whites (Cour-Cheverny and often DD's Silex). Sea-spray is a good example. I like it.

I too have spotted this is a couple of Crozes. Except that in at least one of these case the stench (like a rock pool on the beach) was so bad it was definitely a fault. Also in a white wine - not sure which one. Could be one of those things that adds complexity in small doses, but undesirable if it takes over.

BTW, Dimethyl Sulphide is the revoltingly pungent cauliflower smell in the "faults" Nez du Vin box, and classified as a reductive fault. But I could imagine how at lower intensities it might remind one of the sea.

I've often detected something approximating the smell of the sea/ocean in Chablis, often accompanied by the smell of an oyster shell. I have never detected anything like this in the aroma/bouquet of a red wine.

I thought/believe dimethyl sulphide manifests itself in young red wines as overt cassis and tinned corn eventually developing into off-putting asparagus, green-bean and cabbagy aromas and flavours.

From a cursory amount of research on the net, I also accept that "the smell of the sea" is universally accepted as a result of dimethyl sulphide production.

I thought/believe dimethyl sulphide manifests itself in young red wines as overt cassis and tinned corn eventually developing into off-putting asparagus, green-bean and cabbagy aromas and flavours.

Not sure about cassis, but all the others certainly. Cauliflower is merely the name Nez du Vin gives it.

Someone mentioned oyster shell...that is the smell that comes to me when I think of the sea.

I've smelled definite dms by the sea, but usually I've equated that with shells and possibly seafood having been too long in the sun--decaying.

There is another, underlying sea smell that is refreshingly punchy and oyster- shell-like; that's the one I equate with a mineral/salt quality. I have in fact smelled that in a number of Malbecs (for red) and definitely in Muscadet Sur Lie (for whites).

To date, Muscadet is the one wine that recalls seaside odors for me. And I agree it includes oyster or mussel shells and sea salt.
BTW, in an educational seminar put on by Robert Mondavi personnel to show overly oaked flavors, over salty flavors, etc. the wine with too much salt came across tasting very much like aspirin.

Two years ago, I came across a Lake County Sauvignon Blanc which literally transported me to the oceanside. There was that distinctive smell of kelp, mussels, barnacles, and crab all carried in on the scent of sea water. My first reaction to the nose was "salt water." The winemaker looked at me as if I had had a third eye under the brim of my baseball cap, but then the power of suggestion took over and others seemed to have the same experience.

I recently read a posting that said "saltiness on the nose", something that puzzled me. I've experienced a slight saltiness on the palate, but on the nose? Have any of you experienced this? Can we smell saltiness? What do you think?

Looking over some past tasting notes, I found two wines that aromas of "sea breeze" or "salt," the Margan 2004 Hunter Valley Verdelho and the Argiolas 2004 Costamolino Vermentino di Sardegna. On the palate, both had high acidity and a significant mineral content.

Manzanilla is guaranteed salty. But then you knew that.