Influence of the Nonvolatile Fraction on the Sensory Perception of 40% (v/v) Ethanol‐Containing French Grape Brandies

Abstract

Several studies performed on wines have shown that nonvolatile and matrix components can have an impact on sensory perception through physicochemical and/or sensory interactions. In distilled spirits and as for many other food products, relationships between these components and the sensory perception are still misunderstood. In the present study, we investigated the impact of nonvolatile components on the sensory perception of two 40% (v/v) ethanol-containing French grape brandies with different compositions and sensory qualities. For this purpose, a reconstitution strategy involving freezedrying was developed to test the contributions of nonvolatile components to the sensory perception of brandies. The studied products contained different levels of nonvolatile components, and corresponding to extremes values of the nonvolatile components concentration range usually found in French grape brandies. Sensory results highlighted no significant sensory difference between the two reconstituted brandies. To validate results, sensory evaluations were also performed on model beverages and revealed that sugar and phenols at contents of between 5-25 g/L and 200-1,000 mg/L, respectively, did not have an impact on sensory perception. It could therefore be hypothesized that physicochemical and sensory mechanisms involving ethanol, which is present in very large amounts in distilled beverages, can influence physicochemical interactions and sensory perception, and reduce the impact of nonvolatile components on final sensory perception.

Temporality of perception during the consumption of French grape brandies with different aging times in relation with aroma compound release

“…This result was consistent with the ones obtained in a previous study, in which we had shown that brandy components responsible for taste and trigeminal sensations had only a low impact on perception differences among brandies with different aging. [3] Sensory profile results were useful to characterize global perceived intensities differences between brandies with different aging, but no temporal information could be obtained.…”

“…This observation could be related to the presence of higher amounts of alcohols in intermediary and old brandies than in the younger brandy (Table 3). [3] The aromatic persistence was the longest after the consumption of brandies C to E, which still occurred at the standardized time of 70-75%, especially for woody perception. Results from TDS were in accordance with those of the sensory profile but provided additional quantitative information about the temporal aspect of aromatic perception, notably after the product was spat out.…”

“…This selection of ions was made in order to focus on aroma compounds known to be qualitatively and quantitatively the most important for the perception of French grape brandies. [2,3,5,23] The selection step resulted from a compromise between different criteria: molecules should i) belong to different chemical families, ii) have a known sensory impact in brandy, and iii) be quantitatively detectable by PTR -MS analysis when present in mixture. Preliminary in vitro and in vivo tests with model aroma solutions (aroma compounds alone and in mixture) were performed to help to select the ions to detect by PTR-MS. [20,21] Ion dwell times were chosen in agreement with mean parent compound concentrations in the liquid phase of brandies.…”

“…[1] This is notably the case for distilled beverages, whose quality is mainly related to aromatic richness and complexity. [2,3] Most investigations on distilled beverage aromas in the literature have proposed to dissociate sensory properties by specifically linking aromatic notes to one or more chemical compounds, mainly using olfactory techniques. [4,5] However, to our knowledge, the characterization of the overall perception during the entire consumption has not often been considered in the case of distilled beverages and still remains unclear.…”

Volatile compounds produced in two traditional fermented foods of the Congo: Nsamba (palm wine) and bikedi (retted cassava dough)

“…The qualitative difference in the composition of these two fermented foods is at the basis of the difference in the aromatic notes between "bikedi" and "nsamba". The characterization of these volatile compounds is an important piece of information for understanding the perception of odours, flavor and aromas (Shittu and Adedokun, 2010;Biasioli et al, 2011;Fiches et al, 2013).…”