Enology - Sensory Experiences of Wine Session

Deborah Parker Wong*

A Comparative Study of Sensory Training Methods for Novice Wine Consumers

Deborah Parker Wong*

*California State University, Fresno, 2360 E. Barstow Avenue, M/S VR89, Fresno, CA, 93740, dparkerwong@mail.fresno.edu

The wine industry faces a critical juncture in determining the most effective approach to educating young adult consumers about its products. Demographic trends and consumer surveys indicate a preference for hedonic experiences that enhance enjoyment, in lieu of traditional wine education methods. This study examines the responses of 48 undergraduate college students to two training methods for evaluating wine quality. The research focuses on measuring both hedonic and eudaimonic responses to a digital, interactive visualization method and a traditional, analytical rubric and lexicon-based method. The hypothesis suggests that novice students will prefer the visualization training method, leading to increased time and effort devoted to learning and positively affecting their engagement and motivation levels. Two specific methods were employed in the study: the QUINI wine tasting application, a hybrid model combining traditional instructional strategies with an interactive visualization approach, and the systematic approach to tasting (SAT) developed by the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET), representing a traditional, industry-standard method. Following each training session, students completed post-training surveys designed to measure their hedonic and eudaimonic responses. These responses were coded and analyzed using JASP software. Contrary to the initial hypothesis, Bayesian paired t-test analysis supported the null hypothesis, indicating no statistically significant preference for either training method. Over the 14 wk following the training, when given a choice between QUINI and SAT for assignments, 98% of students consistently chose to use the SAT. This result demonstrates a strong preference for the most expedient method of evaluating wine, challenging the assumption that interactive, hedonic-focused approaches would be more appealing to young adult consumers. These findings suggest that traditional analytical approaches still hold value for novice wine consumers. This study contributes to the discussion about effective ways to engage young adults and the complexity of consumer preferences in this domain.

Funding Support: None, self-funded.

Jean-Xavier Guinard* | Lik Xian Lim | Anita Oberholster

Wine Cuality – A New Method for the Assessment of Wine Sensory Quality by Experts

Jean-Xavier Guinard,* Lik Xian Lim and Anita Oberholster

*UC Davis, 392 Old Davis Road, Department of Food Science and Technology, Davis, CA, 95616, jxguinard@ucdavis.edu

Wine quality has traditionally been evaluated by experts on a 100-point scale. Even though such a quality rating may provide reliable information about the overall quality of the wine, an indication and/or justification of how that rating or number was reached is not usually provided. And yet, sensory quality is a multidimensional concept that encompasses many aspects of a wine’s sensory profile, such as trueness to style, the absence of defects, and the presence of desirable sensory attributes and more holistic concepts such as balance and complexity. Inspired by our approach to deconstructing and understanding hedonic (liking) ratings by consumers, and the Coffee Cuality method (https://www.coffeecuality.com/) we developed to evaluate specialty coffee, we designed Wine Cuality scorecards to assess white and red wines. Those combine an overall quality rating on a 100-point scale with just-about-right ratings for select attributes, a check-all-that-apply task from a list of 20 to 30 sensory and holistic attributes, and some open comments. Through a suite of statistical tools and word analysis, the quality rating on the 100-point scale can be deconstructed and justified and the performance of the experts can be evaluated. The method also accounts for the stage at which a wine is tasted and rated, i.e., postfermentation, post-barrel aging (finished wine), or in the context of a wine judging. We tested our Wine Cuality method with a group of 100 wine experts, using a set of experimental wines from our smoke taint research and commercial wines. The experts consistently discriminated among the wines on the basis of sensory quality and provided a thorough understanding of the positive and negative drivers of sensory quality for both the white and red varietals in this study.

Funding Support: Jackson Family Wines, USDA Agricultural Research Service

Mark Walker Bartz | Lawton Lanier Nalley | Brandon McFadden | Renee Threlfall* | Shelby Rider

Exploring Consumer Perceptions of Alternative Wine Packaging: Environmental and Recyclability Impacts

Mark Walker Bartz, Lawton Lanier Nalley, Brandon McFadden, Renee Threlfall* and Shelby Rider

*University of Arkansas, 2650 N. Young Ave, Fayetteville, AR, 72704 (rthrelf@uark.edu)

Sustainability initiatives are increasingly emphasized in the grape and wine industry. Wine packaging accounts for 34 to 41% of the total carbon footprint of wine production, primarily due to the widespread use of glass bottles. To reduce this footprint, alternative packaging materials such as aluminum, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and multilayer flexible pouches are emerging. However, consumers often perceive glass as the optimal packaging material for wine, associating wine in alternative packaging materials with lower quality. An online discrete choice experiment was conducted with 2000 United States wine consumers and purchasers to assess willingness-to-pay (WTP) for wines packaged in aluminum, PET, or flexible bags relative to glass. Participants were randomly assigned to information groups highlighting the carbon footprint and recyclability of the materials. Consumers discounted wines in alternative packaging, with price reductions ranging from $4.37 to 8.09 for aluminum, $8.01 to 11.42 for PET, and $10.57 to 15.49 for flexible bags compared to glass. WTP was lowest in the no-information group ($22.36) and highest in the carbon-footprint-only group ($25.37). Similarly, market share for alternative packaging ranged from 27.22% in the no-information group to 34.40% in the carbon-footprint group. Consumers consistently preferred aluminum over PET and flexible bags among alternative options. These findings underscore the potential of consumer education on the environmental benefits of alternative packaging to enhance adoption and WTP. Promoting the lower carbon footprint of alternative materials could help shift consumer perceptions and drive sustainability in the grape and wine industry.

Funding Support: The University of Arkansas System Tyson Endowed Chair in Food Policy Economics

Mackenzie Aragon* | Robert Coleman | Roger Boulton | Thomas S. Collins

Modeling the Extraction of Aroma Compounds as a Function of Grain Type, Surface Area, and Toast Intensity in Model Wines

Mackenzie Aragon,* Robert Coleman, Roger Boulton and Thomas S. Collins

*WSU, 2455 George Washington Way, Apt. F230, Richland, WA, 99354, mackenzie.aragon@wsu.edu

Oak alternative products are more quickly extracted than traditional oak barrels. Our prior work in this area demonstrated that the overall surface area and more importantly, the amount of end grain, affect the extraction rate of aroma compounds from alternative forms. The end grain in alternatives plays an increasingly important role in smaller alternative pieces, for which the end grain becomes a large percentage of the overall surface area. This study extends the prior work to include the role of toasting intensity on extraction rate by evaluating American oak adjuncts of differing intensities—light, medium, and heavy toasts. Segments measuring 23 cm × 2.6 × 2.0 cm in length were sequentially cut in half by length (23 cm, 11.5 cm, 5.75 cm, 2.87 cm, and 1.44 cm). This process resulted in treatments with the same total mass and oak volume, but increased surface area and end-grain to cross-grain ratio for the shorter segments due to the exposure of two additional end-grain surfaces for each cut. All treatments used a dosage rate of 20.0 g/L and were extracted in model wine (15% v/v ethanol) for 90 days. Samples were analyzed for content of furfurals, guaiacol, and oak lactones using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The extraction rate and concentration increased as the SA and end-grain to cross-grain rose. At each toast intensity, individual compound classes exhibited different behaviors. Additionally, changes in the concentration of individual compounds at each toasting intensity also influenced the overall extraction kinetics. A first-order kinetic model was fitted to the raw data for each compound across all toast intensities at various SA and grain ratios using the Differential Evolution parameter estimation routine (Peterson and Ulrich 2011). This model’s results highlight the significance of the grain ratio and toasting intensity on the extraction rate and concentration.

Funding Support: Scott Laboratories

Ulrich Fischer* | Lisa Käppler | Katrin Oster | David Töpfer

Enological Measures to Improve the Sensory Quality of Dealcoholized Wines

Ulrich Fischer,* Lisa Käppler, Katrin Oster and David Töpfer

*Institute for Viticulture & Enology, Dienstleistungszentrum Ländlicher Raum-Rheinpfalz, Breitenweg 71, Neustadt an der Weinstraße / 67435, Germany, ulrich.fischer@dlr.rlp.de

Worldwide wine consumption is decreasing, and consumers behave more consciously regarding alcohol. The wine industry has the choice to complain about alcohol criticism, or proactively develop attractive dealcoholized wines, which serve both the objective to reduce personal alcohol consumption and fulfill the passion for an artisanal drink made from well-defined geographic origins and highly acclaimed grape varieties. However, removing ethanol, with its sensory potency, often leads to a boring and dull palate; lack of varietal flavor; and emergence of unpleasant stale, green, and cooked notes. Thus, clever strategies are needed to overcome these sensory shortcomings. In many technological and sensory experiments, we demonstrated that winemaking which enhances flavor in the starting wines also yielded dealcoholized wines with pronounced varietal aroma. Additionally, the green, stale flavor of fusel alcohols that remains in the dealcoholized wines due to their high boiling points, was masked successfully. Dealcoholization shortly after fermentation keeps many varietal flavors in their non-volatile, bound form, which prevents loss by vacuum-distillation. Using aromatic grape juices instead of sucrose to overcome increased sourness offers a reservoir of additional attractive varietal notes that can be released into the dealcoholized wine by ß-glucosidase enzymes. Use of oak enhances the vinous character and strong carbonation supplies mouth-coating irritation, which may even distract consumers from noticing the missing alcohol at all. Skin-fermented white wines are a source of highly bioactive polyphenols and, due to the concomitant loss of bitterness and astringency, they provide a smooth structure to dealcoholized wines. Targeted winemaking offers the chance to produce expressive dealcoholized wines with varietal character, providing a sophisticated alternative for traditional wine drinkers, but also opening the world of wine to consumers who never touched wine before, as they perceive wine as being too alcoholic, bitter, and astringent.

Funding Support: German Ministry for Economy and Climate Protection German Council for the Food Industry (FEI) AiF 22 151 F grant

2:20 pm – 2:40 pm	A Comparative Study of Sensory Training Methods for Novice Wine Consumers Deborah Parker Wong, California State University, Fresno
2:40 pm – 3:00 pm	Wine Cuality™ – A New Method for the Assessment of Wine Sensory Quality by Experts Jean-Xavier Guinard, University of California, Davis
3:00 pm – 3:20 pm	Exploring Consumer Perceptions of Alternative Wine Packaging: Environmental and Recyclability Impacts Renee Threlfall, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
3:20 pm – 3:40 pm	Modeling the Extraction of Aroma Compounds as a Function of Grain Type, Surface Area and Toast Intensity in Model Wines Mackenzie Aragon, Washington State University, Tri-Cities
3:40 pm – 4:00 pm	Oenological Measures to Improve the Sensory Quality of Dealcoholised Wines Ulrich Fischer, Institute for Viticulture & Enology, Germany

Enology – Sensory Experiences of Wine Session

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