Leatherman
His workshop has the rainy smell of a stable,
leather’s shock whiff of dung and leaf,
undiluted by the mild aloof perfumes of the arcades
and precincts which will soon display his goods;
Leatherman is drunk on this first rough odour,
and then he frowns at praise,
diving deep into the balsams and resins of leather,
gripping his rough needs, his webs of strong thread.
(Penelope Shuttle; 1947-present)

One of the great surprises following the introduction of the world’s first aroma training kit for Scotch Malt Whisky, "The Scotch Whisky Aroma Nosing Kit" (see www.scotchwhiskynosingkit.com) was the enthusiastic clamour from whisky lovers who had mastered the training in the kit and who now wanted to proceed to the next level of smell competence in the whisky world.

This gave us a dilemma since the next level; a professional level; requires about 240 aroma standards – about 10 times that of the first kit. So – what to do?

Rather than produce 10 further kits; we invented a private internet smelling club called SWNC – standing for the Scotch Whisky Nosing Community. Each month brings you a blog on whisky aroma molecules and the chance to build-up your store of aroma standards.

Private smelling clubs of this kind are entirely new and are clearly the way forward for smell training. We will soon have a private nosing club for wine [WNC] – Wine Nosing Community, and also one for perfume [PEC] – Perfume Enthusiasts Community.

The world can look forward to many more ‘educated’ noses in the future.

'The Wind, One Brilliant Day
The wind, one brilliant day, called
to my soul with an odor of jasmine.'

‘In return for the odor of my jasmine,
I’d like the odor of your roses.’

‘I have no roses; all the flowers
in my garden are dead.’

‘Well then, I’ll take the withered petals
and the yellow leaves and the waters of the fountain.’

'The wind left. And I wept. And I said to myself: ‘What have you done with the garden that was entrusted to you?’
(Antonio Machado, 1875-1939; translated by Robert Bly)