Help?? Anyone have a wine aroma/essence kit? Le Nez du Vin or similar?

[mtm]

Am considering a Le Nez du Vin Wine Aroma kit for my hubby.
Here is info on it and another alternative one,
further down on the page. That one is way at the bottom of the page...
another kit in a rosewood box by some other company.
http://www.aoweb.com/wedu.html

Oh...and a newer version of Le Nez is here:
http://makescentsofwine.com/new54arom...

Was wondering if ANYONE here might have *either* of these?
I first got the idea by seeing perhaps a small version of the rosewood one at a local vineyard. (a yr ago)

Seemed fun! But we are only beginning in our wine journey...
are newbies. So, this is pretty splurge-y, to say the least!

Anyone with thoughts on this, please share. I realize
some train w/these kits, and we're not serious like that.

But..we will be around some wine lovers this holiday time...
plus a friend of mine recently 'got into it' too.
So I suppose kits like this could be sort of entertaining, too,
while gathered. And I'm running out of ideas for my dear hubby after
almost 20 yrs of gifts! (14 married

)

Would LOVE to hear any experiences w/these. Thanks so much.
I need to decide asap to get it here in time. :-)

[LMelba]

I ended up getting the Le Nez du Vin from WineAromas.com, the red wine or white wine kits are $109 - that was the best price I could find online.

[domaine547]

the prices are set on the Le Nez kits. to sell them, you have to agree to their minimum prices ($109 being the price for the red or white kits).

[LMelba]

Sorry, I'm not sure I get your point. Most retail products have a minimum price... there were plenty of other online stores selling it for more then $109 when I was looking for the product.

[zin1953]

Actually most retail products do NOT have a minimum retail price -- it can be construed as price fixing and subject to consumer protection suits. And even when products do have minimum retail prices -- typically "unofficially" (nudge! nudge! wink! wink!) -- you can always sell the product for more . . .

[FrankJBN]

A manufacturer may set a minimum sales price for its product. These are not "unofficial" but included in the sales contract with the distributor/retailer.

This is not price-fixing nor can it be construed as such. Price fixing involves two or more sellers to the same market colluding on price for their apparently competing products.

[monkuboy]

At least you sell them for $109 - like LMelba said, there are plenty of stores out there selling them for more than the retail price! Is the profit margin on them that low or the demand so high that other stores charge in excess of retail? I wonder how much it costs Le Nez to manufacture these kits?

[domaine547]

Profit margin is less than average compared to other wine-related accessories (or packaged goods in general) but it is a very specialized product. It is a very high quality item so I consider it worth offering even if the margins are slightly tighter.

LMelba, I guess my point was t the $109 being the lowest price on the web was that it would HAVE to be the lowest price on the web for aforementioned reasons. That's all. Nothing more, nothing less.

[mspecos]

you can buy smaller aroma kits from william somona for example just get either a red or white wine kit runs about 120.00

[domaine547]

Le Nez also has red and white kits. same prices if not less than Williams Sonoma. The Le Nez kits have great packaging and really nice supporting materials.

[zin1953]

I agree.

[mtm]

Thanks again, Olive.
Sounds good. Will order tonight. :-)

[LMelba]

I know this post is a bit old, but Mtm, did you end up buying a kit, which one, how did it turn out?

[OliveBelle]

Let's see:
-The big one. But not the set of flaws.
-About 3 years, and it's still tip top.
-Easy to use.
-We pass the bottle around the table & everyone guesses, so no problem with mixing up lids. But even so, the lids have the smell too.

Enjoy!

[mtm]

Olive... :-)
Which size did you go for?
How long have you had it? (have the scents held up?)

Easy to use/play with, with others?
Someone said the lids are not labeled, so you have to be esp.
careful not to mix them up. Thanks so much for sharing!
I think I'll go for it, after all. :-)

[OliveBelle]

I have a Le Nez du Vin kit and really like it. It may seem like the scents are easy (saffron, violets, etc.) but you'd be surprised how tough they are to distinguish when you smell them "blind". I feel like it has really trained my sense of smell!

[mtm]

Thanks so much! Read that link now that you provided. Lots of info!
Appreciate it. :-)

[RicRios]

Nicely posted by carswell in the link below:

>>is there any good "kit" for learning how to detect various common aromas?<<

"The best known is the Nez du Vin. Very pricey and not really all that useful, IMHO, unless you don't know what saffron, violets, cloves, pineapple, etc., smell like. www.lenez.com"

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/344549