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Clean air, as well as its own components, is a carrier of numerous
particles and molecules. 
Certain types of these molecules, to which we give the name aromatic,
may cross the mucus enveloping the olfactory mucosa and impress the sense of smell when
passing through the nose, transported by the air we inhale.
Some bodies are extremely rich in volatile and aromatic substances. Wine is one of them.
The families most representative of the
aromas of wine are alcohols, aldehydes, fatty acids and esters. In general, they are
simple, linear molecules, although some are complex and cyclical
Emission:
The quantity of aromatic molecules given off by an emitter depends proportionally on its temperature and the emission surface. Aromas are characterised by their potential as well as by their strength.
Strength:
The quantity of a type of aromatic molecule determined per unit of volume of air determines the strength with which a smell may be perceived. However, at equal strength, some smells are perceived strongly and others subtly.
Olfactory potential:
This is the minimum quantity of molecules necessary for the sensation to
be perceived.
The olfactory potential corresponds technically to the olfactory
threshold and is measured in milligrams of substance per litre of air.
The organ of smell is located inside the nose. In evolutionary terms it
is the oldest of the human senses and therefore very simply constituted.
Its particular characteristics include the fact that the olfactory
nerve cells are the only ones in the nervous system able to reproduce, a phenomenon which
confirms the primitive evolutionary state of this sense organ.
With the sensations caused by taste and the retronasal aromas, our brain elaborates complex combinations with which we enrich what we taste.
Smell is the sharpest sense we possess, more so even than sight, and so has a great influence on our attitudes and behaviour: it is able to identify a single aromatic molecule in a large volume of air.
Smell usually generates basic, non-elaborate, almost animal emotional reactions.
Because of the lack of education and intellectualisation suffered by
everything associated with smell, it has developed no expressive language of its own; so
for want of any better references, we describe aromas by relating them to well-known
emitters from the natural world.
In general, wines may present a particularly wide range of aromas, so that a single glass may provide a wide variety of strengths and nuances.
Our sense of smell perceives the aromas
in wine with the same precision as the fragrances of a perfume, since in both cases the
same volatile vehicle is involved: ethanol. Just this, and no other, is the true function
of ethanol in wine: to bring the aromas to us efficiently and to help balance our
sensorial perceptions.
Our smell is an organ that is particularly sensitive to sensorial education. We easily learn to discover and recognise aromas from an apparently odourless environment, which has a direct effect on our general appreciation of the world around us and our emotional reaction to it.
