A Drop of Gamay & the Language of Scent

Recently, while tasting a beautiful local wine here in the Barossa Valley a Gamay, for those who love their wine something unexpected happened.

Almost instantly, a sensation rose within me.

Softness.
Femininity.
A feeling of being wrapped in violets.

It wasn’t intellectual. It wasn’t something I thought about.

It was something my body recognised.

Since becoming a somatic therapist and through my work as a perfumer my relationship with scent has deepened. Not simply recognising aromas, but noticing how the body interprets them. How sensation arrives before language. How meaning forms without effort.

And yet, it’s important to remember: scent is inseparable from memory. What one person experiences may be entirely different for another. The body brings its own history to the moment.

Unlike most of my writing which often leans toward self-reflection, trauma-informed work, somatics, or Christian wellness this piece is about the senses. About how we interpret scent. And how making intentional choices with aroma can become a powerful practice of self-care and emotional support sometimes more profound than anything that happens in a therapy room.

Because scent is personal.
Internal.
Relational.

Violets, Familiarity, and a Quiet Amusement

Back to that moment with the Gamay.

As the aroma and taste of violets tip-toed across my palate, I felt a sense of familiarity and it made me chuckle.

Why?

I’ve worked with countless aromatic materials, yet violets aren’t something I consciously know. I have an idea of what they look like… but have I ever truly smelled one? Have I eaten one? Not that I can intentionally recall.

And yet there they were.

This is the power of scent.

It offers micro-moments that cognition can’t quite explain, but the body remembers. Long before we analyse, the nervous system is sensing, processing, collating information often beneath conscious awareness.

We only have to walk past a garden and our body already knows something.

Isn’t that mind-blowing?

Why Scent Reaches So Deep

Research continues to affirm what the body has always known.

Studies show that memories evoked by smell are significantly more emotional and evocative than those triggered visually or auditorily. Interestingly, the vividness or specificity of the memory doesn’t necessarily change — but the emotional weight does.

As Herz (2004) notes, there is a “privileged relationship between olfaction and emotion.”

Scent doesn’t simply carry information.
It carries feeling.

It bypasses logic and speaks directly to the nervous system shaping experience before cognition has time to intervene.

A Childhood Language of Survival

I’ve always been drawn to scent, even as a child.
And now, with greater awareness, I can see that this wasn’t by chance.

Scent became a way of creating glimmers in a childhood that lived under repeated stress and trauma. A quiet, embodied refuge. A way to feel something different — even briefly — when the environment felt overwhelming.

Essential oils and aromas act as sensory cues, informing the nervous system about safety, memory, and meaning before conscious interpretation occurs.

Scent helps the body ask:

Am I safe here?
Is this familiar?
Can I soften?

Scent Is Never Neutral

Scent is never neutral.

Research into odor-evoked memory reveals its capacity to influence emotion, physiology, and meaning through the deepest layers of the nervous system. This understanding underpins my work with Ambedo Functional Fragrances, Soulroots Therapy, and the development of OlfactoSoma™ a trauma-informed approach to scent sharing.

Rather than assuming what comforts us will comfort another, we honour scent as a signal the body must interpret for itself. When offered with care, intention, and consent, scent can support safety, integration, and healing of the inner terrain.

Back to the Gamay

So back to that single drop of Gamay, blooming like a bouquet of violets.

To recall something I haven’t consciously seen or tasted felt powerful. It reminded me that our experience of aroma and flavour is deeply subjective. While taste may be categorised as sweet, salty, or sour, the memory of resemblance is uniquely our own.

In a world that tries to make us buy the same, like the same, be the same — scent reminds us that we are still exquisitely different. No two bodies interpret an aroma in the same way. Just like no two snowflakes are alike.

So next time you encounter a fragrance, pause.

Set an intention before analysing it.

Because just as scent can shape what we remember , when used purposefully, it can help us create something new.

So next time you encounter a fragrance,

pause.

Set an intention before analysing it.

Because just as scent can shape what we remember, when used purposefully, it can help us create something new.

If you’d like to explore this further, you can read our other blog on The Power of Scent, or join our OlfactoSoma™ meditation, an online group experience using scent to cultivate awareness within.