The taste of white wines : is there a specific Chardonnay taste?

Abstract

The quality of white wine is closely linked to its sensory profile, including colour, odour, and taste. Chardonnay, the most widely planted white grape variety worldwide, covers approximately 210,000 hectares across more than 40 countries [1-4]. Originating from Burgundy [5], this cultivar exhibits strong phenotypic plasticity and terroir-driven variability [2]. Despite a well-documented aromatic fingerprint [6,7], little is known about its gustatory profile. This study focuses specifically on taste attributes, aiming to determine whether gustatory profile alone can contribute to the discrimination of Chardonnay wines from other white grape varieties through controlled sensory experiments. Our research hypothesis was that taste-related attributes, integrating sapidity and trigeminal sensations while excluding olfactory input, could enable varietal discrimination. To test this hypothesis, a trained sensory panel of 16 panelists evaluated commercial single-variety white wines under strictly controlled conditions, using black glasses and nose clips to eliminate visual and retronasal olfactory biases [8,9]. The study comprised two phases: first, preliminary sensory tests assessed the feasibility of discriminating Chardonnay wines by taste alone; second, Rate All That Apply experiments were conducted to identify the specific taste descriptors involved in the differentiation between Chardonnay, Viognier and Sauvignon blanc wines [10]. Initial results showed that some Chardonnay wines could be identified by taste alone, but olfactory cues significantly improved discrimination, partially confirming the hypothesis. The RATA analysis highlighted that descriptors such as “fat,” “salt,” “bitter,” and “acid” were key to distinguishing Chardonnay from non-Chardonnay wines, especially Sauvignon blanc. Some Chardonnay wines were very well identified by taste alone by the majority (up to 71 %) of the tasters [11]. This study demonstrates that taste attributes alone can sometime be very powerful for wine variety discrimination although olfaction remains very powerful. The identification of specific taste descriptors associated with Chardonnay offers valuable insights for winemakers, sommeliers, and consumers, enhancing both the production and appreciation of this renowned grape variety. Ongoing work will extend this approach to a larger and more diverse set of Chardonnay wines from Occitanie and Burgundy regions to confirm these results.

References

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