Beyond liking scores: the importance of the drinking experience to understand our consumers

In winemaking, the use of wood products alternative to barrels, has become a useful tool for the achievement of numerous oenological objectives, including the fast release of desirable volatile and polyphenolic compounds, colour stabilization, and important economic advantages if compared to the traditional barrel production. Among a huge array of variables, the wood format, the vinification protocol, especially the moment of the infusion of the woods and the exposed surface area of the alternative woods are of relevant significance, since they may influence the speed and intensity of the aroma transfer from the wood to the wine defining different sensory profiles.

Pre-fermentative skin maceration is a technique used in white wine production to enhance varietal aroma, but it can increase protein concentration, leading to protein instability and haze formation [1]. To prevent protein instability, wine producers typically use fining agents such as bentonite, before wine bottling, which can negatively impact sensory characteristics and produce waste [2,3]. The aim of this study was to understand the impact of alternative techniques such as the application of polysaccharides (k-carrageenan and chitosan) on protein stability and on the wine macromolecular composition.

During spirit beverages production, the distillate is divided in three parts: the head, the heart, and the tail. Acetaldehyde and ethanol are two key markers which allow the correct separation of distillate. Being toxic, the elimination of the head part, which contains high concentration of acetaldehyde, is crucial to guarantee the consumer’s health and security. Plus, the tail should be separated from the heart based on ethanol concentration.

Premium red wines are often aged in oak barrel. This widespread winemaking process is used, among others, to provide roundness and complexity to the wine. The study of wine evolution during barrel aging is crucial to better ensure control of wine quality.
¹H-NMR has already been proved to be an efficient tool to monitor winemaking process [1]. Indeed, it is a non-destructive technique, it requires a small amount of sample and a short time of analysis, yet it provides clues about several chemical families.

Bordeaux is the largest appellation vineyard in France. This contrasting vineyard with varied terroirs offers all styles of wine, resulting from the blending of several grape varieties. If these different profiles make the renown of Bordeaux wines, it can appear as a constraint when the aim is to study Bordeaux wines in their diversity. The selection of a representative sample can be performed by a sensory analysis carried out by trained panelists or by wine professionals, which can take several forms: consensus among experts, conventional descriptive analysis, typicality or quality evaluation. However, because of time, economic, and logistical constraints, these methods have limited applications. As an alternative to classical descriptive analysis, more intuitive methods that do not require training have been proposed recently to describe wines using an expert panel such as Napping, Free Choice or Flash Profiling, CATA or RATA.