What Is Bouquet in Wine? Aroma vs Bouquet Explained
Learn what bouquet means in wine tasting, how it differs from aroma, and how aging creates the complex scents found in mature wines. A guide for WSET students.
Bouquet refers to the secondary and tertiary aromas that develop in wine through aging, such as leather, tobacco, and dried fruit. It is distinct from the primary fruit aromas of a young wine.
The word “bouquet” is often used loosely as a synonym for how a wine smells, but in professional wine tasting, it has a specific and important meaning. Understanding the distinction between aroma and bouquet is essential for anyone studying wine seriously, and it helps explain why aged wines smell so different from young ones.
What Is Bouquet?
In precise wine terminology, bouquet refers to the complex aromas that develop in wine through aging and maturation. These are the scents that emerge over time as chemical reactions transform the wine’s original aromatic compounds into new, more complex ones. Bouquet is distinct from aroma, which refers to the primary scents that come directly from the grape variety and from early winemaking processes.
A young Cabernet Sauvignon might display primary aromas of blackcurrant, green pepper, and violet, scents that come from the grape itself. As that same wine ages for ten or twenty years, those primary aromas fade and are replaced by bouquet notes: leather, tobacco, cedar, dried fruit, mushroom, forest floor, and truffle. These complex scents are not present in the grape; they develop through slow chemical evolution in the bottle.
Why Bouquet Matters
Bouquet is one of the primary reasons wine enthusiasts age wine rather than drinking everything young. The transformation from primary fruit aromas to a developed bouquet is one of the most fascinating and rewarding aspects of wine, and it is something that cannot be rushed or manufactured.
In professional tasting and WSET assessment, identifying whether a wine shows primary aromas, secondary aromas (from winemaking processes like fermentation and oak aging), or tertiary aromas (the bouquet of bottle aging) is a critical step in evaluating a wine’s age, quality, and development. A wine showing a complex bouquet of tertiary characteristics tells the taster that it has been aged, that it was well-made enough to develop positively over time, and that it likely has significant quality.
Understanding bouquet also helps you decide when to open a bottle. A wine that still displays only primary fruit aromas may benefit from additional aging to develop a bouquet. A wine showing a fully evolved bouquet with fading fruit is at or past its peak and should be enjoyed soon.
Bouquet in Practice
The three categories of wine aromas work as follows. Primary aromas come from the grape variety and include fruity, floral, and herbal scents. A young Riesling might smell of lime, peach, and jasmine. A young Syrah might offer blackberry, violet, and black pepper. These are varietal characteristics.
Secondary aromas come from the winemaking process. Fermentation can add yeasty, bready, or biscuity notes, particularly in sparkling wines aged on their lees. Oak aging contributes aromas of vanilla, toast, coconut, smoke, and spice. Malolactic fermentation adds buttery and creamy scents. These aromas layer on top of the primary ones and are most apparent in wines between one and five years old.
Tertiary aromas, or the bouquet proper, develop during extended bottle aging. In red wines, bouquet notes commonly include leather, tobacco, dried herbs, earth, mushroom, truffle, cedar, cigar box, dried fruit, and meat-like savory qualities. In white wines, bouquet might include honey, beeswax, petrol (particularly in aged Riesling), marmalade, toasted nuts, and caramel.
The grape varieties most celebrated for developing exceptional bouquet include Nebbiolo, where aged Barolo develops extraordinary notes of tar, roses, dried cherry, and leather. Pinot Noir from Burgundy evolves from bright cherry and raspberry into forest floor, truffle, and dried flowers. Cabernet Sauvignon from top Bordeaux estates develops cedar, cigar box, and graphite over decades.
To practice distinguishing aroma from bouquet, try tasting a young wine alongside an aged wine of the same grape variety. Notice how the young wine leads with fresh fruit while the aged wine offers a more complex, layered, and savory nose. This side-by-side comparison makes the concept of bouquet immediately tangible.
Explore with Sommo
Developing your ability to identify and describe bouquet is a hallmark of advanced wine tasting. Sommo’s structured tasting notes guide you through evaluating a wine’s aromatic development, from primary aromas through bouquet, helping you build the vocabulary and recognition skills used in WSET assessments and professional tasting.
