The Influence of the Bottle’s Price and Label Reported Information on the Perception of the Minerality Attribute in White Wines

Sensory evaluation of Protected Designation of origin Wines: Development of olfactive descriptive profile and references

Wines covered by PDO or PGI quality labels have specific sensory characteristics. According to EU regulations, product characteristics (including the sensory description) must be defined in the PDO technical specification and should be verified for their compliance. There exist internationally harmonized quantitative descriptive sensory methods applied to products such as virgin olive oil, with well-defined attributes described in the method itself. Currently, in the case of wine, there is no harmonized international sensory descriptive method that allows comparison of results between different PDOs or laboratories. In this work, a qualitative and quantitative olfactory profile for a broad variety of wines (11 PDO and 37 wine types) and their corresponding reference standards are proposed. The sensory profile obtained can be used both to verify compliance with the technical specifications of the product and to categorize wines by type or region, thus becoming a powerful tool for the wine sector.

Wine Minerality and Funkiness: Blending the Two Tales of the Same Story

In wines, minerality is a complex concept with increasing popularity in scientific research and the wine press. The flavour conceptual space of mineral wines comprises sulphur-reduced aromas, such as flint, wet stone or chalk associated with freshness and lingering mouth perceptions. Professionals do not consider the perception of sulphur-reduced flavours as an off-flavour. Indeed, this sort of reduction is a cue for the recognition of minerality under a likely top-down mental process. However, untrained consumers perceive these aromas as unpleasant. This different qualitative assessment hampers the communication between professionals and amateurs. This review aimed to describe the perceptions of minerality by experts and novices to promote their mutual understanding. Funkiness is proposed as a descriptor of mineral wines when tasted by unexperienced consumers. The chemical basis of minerality and winemaking options were explored to understand their implications on sensory perception. Mineral flavours have two main features. The first comprises ephemeral aromas that may be described as funky, given their association with sulphur-reduced molecules. The second is linked to the fresh and vivacious lingering mouthfeel perceptions that remain after the reductive aromas vanish. Consumers recognise this dual perception by demonstrating positive emotional responses of surprise during tasting. Then, the perception of minerality is a question of cognition and not of particularly developed sensory skills. Appropriate tasting approaches encompassing emotional responses and emergent properties (e.g., harmony, depth, persistence, complexity) appear essential to understand the nature of wine minerality and to determine when it may be regarded as a surrogate for fine wine quality.