Ahh okay..."barnyard" smell to me means manure smell...I'm still confused. If they are talking about the grassy smell you get from fresh cut hay, okay, but then say "smell" don't say "taste" because it doesn't at all taste like that--I still don't think it smells like cut hay though, but I'll accept that assessment of it.
I still operate a farm myself, even though I'm old, and I still don't get that comparison to virginia tobacco, red or bright. Like logs said above though, I guess it's different for everyone, but that said, I just don't understand why people use such a specific definition of a characteristic if everyone is going to interpret that characteristic differently...wouldn't it be better to state something more common? The bread thing in the original post, now everyone can relate to that because everyone's eaten bread...I don't think everyones lived on a farm like I do.
I agree, Jesse. Another wine reference would be "grassiness" in some Pino Grigios or Sauvignon Blancs, particularly from Marlborough, NZ. It's not that I go munch on grass, but because our taste and smell are so intrinsically linked, we taste things by smell frequently. I smoke a lot of VA's that I would describe as "Hay-like", not because I eat hay, but rather because they taste (in a combination of true tastebud taste and smell) like hay smells. Yorktown is a prime example, as is fresh Stokkebye Luxury Twist Flake (minus the coconutty/caramel topping), and many others that evoke a field of freshly mown hay. Some others have more of the "barnyard" smell which I can only assume comes from fermentation from longer aging, and it is a smell that many of my favorite cheeses and even some prosciutto has, but I've never eaten a barnyard.
"smells" I am completely fine with it's this whole taste thing that puzzles me; I don't know much about wines, rarely drink them to be honest. Mostly a beer/gin/sour mash guy here, but I do get what your saying. To be honest, the leather reference makes more sense to me than the grass reference. Thanks for adding your post...clears it up a little for me.
Nope, though I am an old fart. But you have given me a goal, something to aspire to achieve. Thank you!
I think everybody has said anything I could say, so I stayed out of it. Different plant varietals, different soil, different climates, when tobacco is picked for processing, and the chemistry of it all. Generally, the lighter the tobacco, the more hay there often is.
