The limitations of intensity scoring when describing the odor characteristics of a complex product have been documented in the literature. Wine is indeed aromatically complex. This presentation aims to present another descriptive approach based merely on the presence/absence of odorant notes in wines. To test the interest of this method, we carried out the sensory description of odor for 12 Burgundy Pinot Noir wines by two independent panels, one with an intensity-based method (conventional descriptive analysis, DA) and the other with a citation frequency-based method. Three criteria were compared: similarity of the sensory maps, control of panel performance and practical aspects. Intensity scorings were analyzed by Principal Component Analysis (PCA); citation frequencies were analyzed by Correspondence Analysis (CA). Both datasets were then analyzed by Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA). Although each set of results underlined the same main odor characteristics (fruity, vegetal and oak barrel), dimensionality in CA was slightly higher than in PCA, probably as a consequence of the larger number of descriptors employed in the frequency-based method. The clustering of wines was also different for each method. In conventional DA, one sample exhibiting intense barrel-aged notes was responsible for most of the variance in the PCA. This induced a settling of the remaining wines and, therefore, a rougher characterization of the clusters than that obtained by CA from citation frequencies. For its richness of product characterization and for practical aspects, the frequency of citation method could well represent a convenient alternative to conventional descriptive analysis when describing wine odor.