This month's wine selection as described by Éva-Marie Lind

Éva-Marie Lind describes this month’s Wine Club selection. Empowered by passion, botanical beauty, science, and authenticity, Éva-Marie Lind is a Designer, Olfactory Artist, Perfumer, Healing Arts Facilitator and the CEO/founder of EM Studios Arome in Portland, Oregon. Ms. Lind has devoted over 30 years to innovations in scent and flavor, with the unique distinction that all ingredients are devoted to natural, ecological, and sustainable tenets. Focused to authenticity, transparency and integrating her work at source, seed to bottle, she has become a uniquely honed, one-of-a-kind design specialist in the field of aromatic and medicinal plants. Contact: em@emarome.com.

Here, Ms. Lind shares her sensory perceptions of the Frey Organic Wine Club selection for spring, from a perfumer's perspective.

Sauvignon Blanc 2011
She opened with the fresh zest of pink grapefruit kissed by grassy notes of lemongrass and perilla (shiso) leaf. A floral, powdery refrain of creamy honeysuckle, when the evening sun dips in the sky sufficiently to kiss her warmed waxy petals underneath, exposing her ‘winey’ impressions. Lemongrass unfolds, offering a sensation of fresh grated ginger, slightly pungent, lemony, laced with ribbons of honey and a spicy-sweet wood under-note. In fusion with the green, apple-pip of shiso, she lifts into a bright vibrancy. In the mouth there was an addition of juicy melon that merged to a seamless minerality, where all elements, that might otherwise appear resilient to one another, danced in harmony, and offered a lingering finish.

Pinot Noir 2012
This wine began with a bright yet delicate aroma that spoke to me of cashmere and Turkish rose petal, that offers less in her roseaceous characteristics, exposing more presence of her leaf and fruitiness, with an underskirt of soft spice. Teased with lemon blossom and brushed lightly with wild fennel and a hint of sweet cedar beneath. In the mouth she was slightly tart and delightfully soft, exposing cassis (black currant) having a simultaneous flirtation with sweet cherry, plum, a fringe of rhubarb and the suggestion of toasted caramel. She finished with a whisper of the floral that began at her nose.

Merlot 2010
She blossomed with a brushing of cassis merged with the creamy violet demeanor of orris butter, subtle blueberry and a hint of Tarocco orange zest with a gourmand underskirt. In the mouth her blueberry notes became bolder, opening to expose a surprise accent of sweet cherry and a hint of acai. Brighter notes of cassis followed, further feathered by orris, with accents of oakwood, the slightly peppered, fruity notes of clove bud and the sweet buttery notes offered from the cœur (heart), of zeylanicum cinnamon. Her ending was balanced with a refined, slightly smoked, earthy finish.

Biodynamic Cabernet Sauvignon 2009
Uncorking the bottle was as if blackberry and fig were shaking hands, with a dusting of cacao and a hint of oak upfront. Nose deeper, caramel and the inner heart of nutmeg reached forward. In the mouth she was plush, with a lovely rush of herbaceous tannins, that held a suggestion of tarragon leaf before she is crushed, a touch of golden tobacco exposing glimmers of sun-dried hay that merged with a lingering of sweet wood offering a subtle richness weighted by dryness. All held a wonderful balance in the mouth with a lovely finish.