A scent Sommelier is one who can identify a scent.  Not just the scent as a whole, but the parts of the scent.  It gives us a story of what is around us.  If I smell skunk, I may also smell my dog and the trees and grasses along with the fluid the skunk has sprayed.  The story may be that my dog met up with a skunk in the field next to my house.  Our scent stories give us very important information about our environment and can create beautiful (or sometimes not so pleasant) colour to the world around us.  

Our sense of smell is a very basic, primal and important sense to our ability to be oriented to the world around us.  We know smells that are really familiar, such as the smell of cookies in the oven or when hay has just been cut.  We can also recognize smells we don't like, such as fecal matter or metalic scent after a car crash.  

Keep in mind that scent is very individual and subjective to our life experience and our personal development and training.  I worked in operating rooms and acquired the knowing of the smell of blood that was drying on operating room sponges.  All O.R. sponges must be lined up on the surgical table until the end of the proceedure for the final count.  I do not like the smell of stale blood!

In early times of human evolution, scent gave us vital information to gather food, hunt and protect  ouselves.  Most of the animal kingdom still relies heavily on scent to navigate in their world.  As a perfumer, I have cultivated my sense of smell by teaching myself to recognize nuances of scent wherever I go and whatever I do.  

Striving to be a scent sommoelier requires an alert brain and being present in the moment.  Some people have the natural ability to decode the contents of scents easily while others must train to familiarlize themselves with the nuance of scents.  It is great to explore scent and I encourage anyone to take time each day to smell what is around them.  It is an excellent way to become more aware of your environment and will enrich the world around you.  

Enjoy!!