The development of a sensor for the direct and selective determination of atmospheric ethanol is in the initial stages. The sensor takes advantage of the selective chemical reaction between ethanol and vanadium oxinate. This reaction occurs in an organic medium where a red colored complex is the product. This reaction is determined spectrophotometrically where the absorbance maxima is 475 nm. The focus of this paper is to discuss the parameters necessary to develop a solid sorbent sampling-sensor which can be used to determine atmospheric ethanol.