Creation and Acceptability of a Fragrance with a Characteristic Tawny Port Wine-Like Aroma

Abstract

Port wine, the ultimate expression of the Demarcated Douro Region’s (DDR’s) history, cultural heritage experience, and art, was born on the slopes of the Douro river valley. One of the categories of port wine that is much appreciated by consumers is tawny port wine. This category of wine is aged in oak barrels and is characterized by oxidative aromas. Thus, the objective of the present work was to develop a tawny port wine-like fragrance, the first according to the literature. First, a group of 50 consumers in an informal environment and using two samples of tawny port wine (13 and over 40 years of aging in wood, respectively) was asked about the pleasantness of the aromas and the possible use of a tawny port wine-like fragrance. More than 80% of the group stated that they would use the fragrance as an air freshener (scent marketing in restaurants) or even in personal-use products. Then, a sensory panel of 12 participants (3 men and 9 women) was trained, and using tawny port wines of various brands and ages, the panel selected six descriptors to aromatically describe this type of wine. For the descriptors, seven aromatic chemical compounds were appointed and fragrances were developed with contributions from the panel. After several sessions with the sensory panel, three fragrances were selected, created with only three of the aromatic compounds initially used: benzaldehyde, sotolon, and vanillin. Afterward, the levels of consumer acceptability (150 individuals) for the three developed fragrances were studied and the optimization of their sensory characteristics was evaluated using a “just about right” (JAR) scale. It was found that male individuals assigned higher ratings and preferred fragrance 5.1, which was a statistically significant result (p < 0.001). Regarding age, Tukey’s test showed significant differences in responses to fragrance 5.3 between young adults and middle-aged adults (p = 0.018). Young adults gave higher scores for this fragrance. Additionally, consumers considered that the intensity of the tawny port wine aroma was ideal in the three fragrances, however, the fragrance color was not very intense. The use of the three compounds (benzaldehyde, sotolon, and vanillin) seems to be enough to obtain a tawny port wine-like fragrance.

Volatile Composition of Fortification Grape Spirit and Port Wine: Where Do We Stand?

“… Analysis of the co-occurrence links between keywords, obtained using the software VOSviewer 1.6.16, considering the bibliographic information available in the Scopus database concerning the aroma/volatile composition of Port wines and fortification grape spirit (also reported in the literature as wine spirit and aguardente ) [ 3 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ]. …”

“…Other keywords with lower bibliographic representativeness, but still with some impacts, were: Douro Demarcated Region, wine making, forced aging, carotenoids, and norisoprenoids. Analysis of the co-occurrence links between keywords, obtained using the software VOSviewer 1.6.16, considering the bibliographic information available in the Scopus database concerning the aroma/volatile composition of Port wines and fortification grape spirit (also reported in the literature as wine spirit and aguardente) [3,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29].…”

“…In order to systematize the data available in the literature about the volatile composition of grape spirits (used in the fortification step) and Port wine, a search in the Scopus database was performed using the following combinations of keywords: “Port wine AND aroma”; “Port wine AND volatile compounds” and “Port wine AND wine spirit” [ 3 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ]. This bibliographic search led to the construction of the diagram presented in Figure 1 , which allows the visualization of the bibliometric networks between the retrieved results from Scopus, in this case, using the co-occurrence links between keywords.…”

Port Wine: Production and Ageing

“…More than 200 volatile components have been detected in Port wines, 141 of which have been entirely or partially identified, however, the sensory importance of the various groups of volatile compounds does not entirely explain the sensory properties of Ruby or Tawny Port wines [95]. For the Ruby Port wine sensory profile, the attributes are 'Ruby' , 'Persistence' , 'Red fruits' , 'Fruity flavour' , 'Astringency' and 'Floral' were dominant, whereas in the White Port wine attributes like 'Honey' , 'Sweet taste' , 'Alcoholic sensation' , 'Balance' , 'Acid taste' and 'Moscatel' are the ones that better characterise these wines, Tawny Port wines are characterised by the attributes 'Dried fruits flavour' , 'Dried fruits' , 'Spices' , 'Wood' and 'Sweet/Honey' [96,97]. The Pink Port wines sensory attributes are characterised by the attributes 'Red fruit aroma' , 'Body' , 'Fruit aroma' , 'Fruity flavour' , 'Spicy sensation' and 'Persistence' [98].…”

Sensory and Volatile Flavor Analysis of Beverages

“…Port wine, the ultimate expression of the Portuguese Demarcated Douro Region’s (DDR’s) history, cultural heritage experience, and art was also the theme for one of the works presented. Vilela et al [ 10 ] developed a tawny port wine-like fragrance, the first according to the literature. This fragrance could be used in sensory marketing in restaurants or even in personal-use products.…”