Perceptual interactions between fruity and woody notes of wine

Abstract

The quantitative olfactory interactions in three binary mixtures of wine aroma compounds were studied. For the first two mixtures, whisky lactone (woody note) was mixed separately with two esters (fruity note), ethyl butyrate and isoamyl acetate. For the third mixture, guaiacol (woody note) was mixed with ethyl butyrate (fruity note). Perceived odour intensity of 24 stimuli (four supra-threshold concentration levels of two compounds and the respective 16 mixtures) were evaluated in five replications, by a trained panel of 13 subjects. The results showed that for the three binary mixtures studied, quantitative perceptual interactions were non-level independent, non-symmetrical, and reached the compromise level of hypo-addition. The experimental data highlighted that generally mixtures with high whisky lactone levels led to the compromise level of mixture intensity perception, whereas mixtures with high fruity note intensity proportions did not. A tendency to hyper-addition was observed in iso-intense mixtures only at the lowest intensity level.

Perception of wine fruity and woody notes: influence of peri-threshold odorants

“…These findings prove that there are perceptual interactions between the fruity and woody odorants used in the mixtures. Such perceptual interactions between these compounds were previously observed at supra-threshold levels (Atanasova, Langlois, Nicklaus, Chabanet, Thomas-Danguin, & Etiévant, 2003;Atanasova, Thomas-Danguin, Langlois, Nicklaus, & Etievant, 2004). The present study indicates that these interactions can also take place when one component is below its detection threshold.…”

Revisiting psychophysical work on the quantitative and qualitative odour properties of simple odour mixtures: a flavour chemistry view. Part 1: intensity and detectability. A review.

“…[11,15] It should be remarked that in an extensive study carried out at isointensity and at clear supra-threshold levels, s never exceeded 0.67 in the 168 mixtures studied, [3] which supports the idea that perfect addition and synergy at real supra-threshold levels are very infrequent, but not impossible results. Accepting the idea that the olfactory sense is a compressive system, these results are strikingly different to the most frequent outcome.…”

“…Two out of those eight mixtures belonged to the strange heptyl acetate/ethyl salicylate pair, and the rest correspond to mixtures of very low intensities (slightly above the threshold). [11,15,27,28] Similarly, among the 14 mixtures in the perfect additivity area, 13 equally correspond to mixtures of low intensities and only one more belongs to a really suprathreshold mixture of hexanoic acid and dimethyl disulfide, whose intensity could have been scored higher as a response to unpleasantness in the words of the own researchers. [24] However, we should note that the mixture hexanoic acid/dimethyl disulfide has an extremely unpleasant odour, reminiscent of rotten camembert, so that it could really be a new odour concept.…”

Revisiting psychophysical work on the quantitative and qualitative odour properties of simple odour mixtures: a flavour chemistry view. Part 2: qualitative aspects. A review.

“…Later, intensity measuring free-number magnitude estimation 36 [6] Intensity is evaluated using a 140 mm scale with a mark at 37 mm corresponding to a standard of one of the two components (previously given [17] and [12] Discriminative tests comparing different mixtures of citral/eugenol to see when a significant change is perceived. [7] Intensity was first measured using a 130 mm scale with five n-butanol references, [79] quality was then [10] Total intensity versus a 1% lemon essence reference. After this, subjects estimate the contribution (in %) of each component to the overall mixture 5 mixtures  2 concentration levels Concentration (level) exerts a slight effect in the bourgeonal/butanol pair, but a strongest effect in the bourgeonal/ undecanal case.…”