Smell-ology

Our first day in Beaune, R told me about some new place in town; he called it Smell-ology; I can't remember the exact name, but it is basically a free exhibit run by the city to educate visitors on the fragrances and colors of wine. Housed in a historical building in the center of town, there are a series of full-size wine barrels, each one topped with a round dome-like glass over a nature morte of a certain fragrance. There is some kind of a system that circulates air into the dome through another glass tube below each exhibit, so that the air is very slowly pushed out of a 3" tube which comes off the top of the dome at an angle. I'm sorry to be imprecise, but we got there 10 minutes before closing, and at closing all of the domes are removed so that the next day each mini-exhibit can be rebuilt with fresh materials. The general shot at top was taken as the monitor was taking apart the exhibits for the night.

So I didn't have much time; but I went around the room and here are the photos: from top to bottom: vanilla, dried fruits and nuts (note the cute little man!), coffee/licorice, leather/animal, forest/mushroom, cassis/cherry, red fruits, floral, citrus and custard. Let me tell you, this really gives you an excellent base for your wine tasting! Have you ever smelled a Pommard, and had someone tell you that it has the taste of "fur, leather, or animal?" Stick your nose into any of these exhibits and you know exactly what they mean!

The second part of the exhibit was a series of tubes showing the color range of the wines of Burgundy, red and white. Also interesting but obviously not interactive.

Tomorrow we are going to be at Corona del Mar market and Sunday in Palisades; both days this weekend we are also at the Laguna Beach Eco Fest which is produced by Endangered Planet Foundation; http://www.1e1d.org/ see you at the markets and fest this weekend! My new merchandise has not arrived, or rather, it is sitting at LAX and under Customs Hold at the port of Los Angeles. I am disappointed, but that means next weekend will be the launch of the new merch.