Terroir 2012 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 On the meaning of looking for terroir perceptions in blind tastings

On the meaning of looking for terroir perceptions in blind tastings

Abstract

If one considers as “physical or sensory attributes” of a wine its concentrations of alcohol and of other substances, it can be stated that another class of attributes exists, which can be called “metaphysical attributes”, mainly linked to feelings ignited by terroir information. Therefore, wine consumers can be divided in two categories: a) the common consumer, who drinks wine as a hedonistic experience, focusing in the physical attributes (taste, aroma, texture); b) the wine lover, who, besides asking for these basic pleasures, longs for metaphysical or spiritual information, which comes along with data on the production region, its traditions and landscape, the vineyard, winemaking methods and culture, and on the winemaker’s persona. All these metaphysical information are lost in blind tastings, where, primarily, the physical attributes are sensed.

Measurements of chemicals in wines from different terroirs tend to indicate that typicity can be detected; nevertheless, variations in vintage, clones, assemblages, and methods give variability even to terroir wines. In a blind tasting, the eventual identification of terroir characteristics makes a call to the memory, which is not an exact recorder This work reports results from 30 blind tasting sessions, focused on wines from dozens of viticultural regions; it reports also results from seven non-blind tastings of handcrafted wines from the same producer, performed in the winery, as reported in the media. Results show that, even in panels of veteran tasters, terroir attributes are heavily lost in blind tastings; however, reports from non-blind tastings are remarkably focused in a few descriptors. It is concluded that perception of the terroir component, and so, the terroir value, is deeply linked to knowledge of metaphysical attributes, being, nevertheless, consistent from a sensorial perspective.

Download the PDF

DOI:

Publication date: October 1, 2020

Issue: Terroir 2012

Type: Article

Authors

Jorge DUCATI (1,2), Vilmar BETTÚ (3)

(1) Centro Estadual de Pesquisas em Sensoriamento Remoto e Meteorologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, Porto Alegre, Brazil
(2) Sociedade Brasileira dos Amigos do Vinho – Regional Sul, Rua Liberdade 120, Porto Alegre, Brazil
(3) Reliquiæ Vini, Estrada do Sabor, Estrada Geral Sao Gabriel, Garibaldi, Brazil

Contact the author

Keywords

wine attributes, sensory perception, taste of place

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Terroir 2012

Citation

Related articles…

Assessing the feasibility of direct injection for pesticide residue analysis in grape juice by liquid chromatography/triple quadrupole mass spectrometry

In Brazil, the regulation of pesticide residues is guided by the National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAPA), emphasizing the importance of monitoring pesticide levels in agricultural products to protect consumer health.

Read More

Effect of plant fining agents in the must flotation process. Functional characterization

Flotation is one of the most used processes for clarifying white grape must after the pressing process. To date, gelatine is the more used fining agent, its action being improved when combined with bentonite and silica sol.

Read More

La zonazione viticola e i compiti dell’amministrazione regionale

Solo attraverso un adeguato intervento di estirpazione e reimpianto dei vigneti è possibile preservare, adeguare e valorizzare il patrimonio viticolo e le produzioni che da esso derivano.
Il reimpianto dei vigneti è pertanto da intendersi come una normale pratica agricola, alla pari della rimonta di stalla in campo zootecnico, ma può assumere toni problematici quando, come si verifica adesso in Toscana per una serie di circostanze legate alla profonda trasfor­mazione della viticoltura avvenuta negli ultimi 30 anni, troppi impianti giungono contem­poraneamente a fine ciclo produttivo e devono essere rinnovati.

Read More

Effect of irrigation in cover cropping vineyards

Cover cropping in vineyard is a sustainable and alternative soil management system to conventional tillage that is gaining more and more importance among winegrowers and is being promoted, among other organizations, by the European Union through the eco-schemes of the Common Agricultural Policy.
However, the use of cover crops in Mediterranean viticultural environments is conditioned, to a large extent, by the availability of irrigation water which, in a context of global warming like the one we are experiencing, must be adjusted to savings strategies, supplying to the vine only what it needs in each moment.

Read More

CONSENSUS AND SENSORY DOMINANCE ARE DEPENDENT ON QUALITY CONCEPT DEFINITIONS

The definition of the term “quality” in sensory evaluation of food products does not seem to be consensual. Descriptive or liking methods are generally used to differentiate between wines (Lawless et al., 1997). Nevertheless, quality evaluation of a product such as wine can also relate to emotional aspects. As exposed by Costell (2002), product quality is defined as an integrated impression, like acceptability, pleasure, or emotional experiences during tasting. According to the ‘modality appropriateness’ hypothesis which predicts that wine tasters weigh the most suitable sensory inputs for a specific assess- ment (Freides, 1974; Welch & Warren, 1980), the nature of the quality definitions may modulate sensory influences.

Read More