Once you have poured your wine into a tulip shaped glass and noted all the things you can see you are ready to tantalize your nose.  Smell is one of your most powerful senses even though most of us do not use it very much.  Still, it is our best guide when we use it to smell the bouquet of the wine.  Take one sniff then swirl the wine around and sniff again.  A subtle and maturing wine may need another swirl before it gives off much of its aroma.  A wine’s smell is the first and most powerful hint of the taste pleasures you have experienced in the past and the most powerful indicator of the pleasures you are about to enjoy.  Note whether it smells clean or musty (a sign that it was not filtered well during bottling, or has deteriorated since), and its intensity.  Bouquet does not predict the intensity of the taste but gives you a hint of what your taste is about to experience.  Think of what the smell reminds you of and try to put it into words.  The bouquet becomes more interesting if you can remember something pleasant to associate it with and the bouquet will go a long ways to help you figure out if you like the wine you are about to drink. 

Smelling and drinking can be very different and it would be a shame to pass up the bouquet if it is very different than its taste.  Unfortunately, most people forget about concentrating on the bouquet and rush right to drinking and so miss at least half of the pleasure that wine can give.  I have some professional friends who keep a small sample on their desk and let it sit while it freshens the air in their office.  A complex bouquet can bring many different smells at different times because as your smell neurons tire of one aroma other neurons will become engaged and the wine will begin to smell totally different than it did just a moment ago.  No air freshener can make that claim because they only package one scent and your brain shuts down after a while and you end up not smelling anything.  Good wines tend to become more interesting, commercial wines usually less so with time. So aroma can help you determine the quality of a wine as much or more than the taste will and you will likely find that paying attention to the bouquet will help you more quickly find the wines you prefer and like.