Sensory assessment of grape polyphenolic fractions: an insight into the effects of anthocyanins on in-mouth perceptions

Abstract

Anthocyanins are extracted from grape skins during maceration and are responsible for the red colour of wine. Their contribution to in-mouth sensations is mainly related to their interactions with condensed tannins, which are largely responsible for wine astringency and mouthfeel-related features. Recently, the influence of several groups of polyphenols, together with other relevant non-phenolic wine constituents,was investigated in terms of their ability to modify the sensory perception of condensed tannins. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of three acylation groups of anthocyanins (glucoside, acetylglucoside, and p-coumaroylglucoside) extracted from grape skins on in-mouth related features. An extract of total anthocyanins and their individual fractions were tasted using different sensory approaches (triangle test, check-all-that apply and descriptive analysis) and compared to polyphenols extracted from grape skins and seeds. The investigated sensations were overall astringency and astringency sub-qualities, which were divided into two groups: sensation during tasting (in-mouth, particulates) and sensation after expectoration (surface smoothness). Bitterness was also studied. Anthocyanin fractions were added to skin and seed extracts and tasted as mixtures to find out if anthocyanins modify in-mouth perception. Although the anthocyanin fractions showed a low sensory impact, total anthocyanins and the glucoside fraction were perceived at the concentration ranges found in wines (400 mg/L), and they were found to influence astringency intensity and soft astringency sub-qualities, such as “velvety” and “chalky”. The addition of glucoside anthocyanin (400 mg/L) to skin and seed extract (1000 mg/L) modified in-mouth perception; in particular, seed extract was perceived as being more astringent and was characterised by harsher astringency sub-qualities (surface smoothness and particulates). In contrast, the addition of glucoside anthocyanin to the skin extract led to lower surface smoothness, although the intensity of overall astringency was unchanged. These results confirm that the presence of anthocyanins can modify the perception of in-mouth sensations and interact to different extents with other polyphenols, thus leading to the modification of the intensity of astringency and its sub-qualities.

Flavor Chemical Profiles of Cabernet Sauvignon Wines: Six Vintages from 2013 to 2018 from the Eastern Foothills of the Ningxia Helan Mountains in China

“…Oenological parameters, such as alcohol content, titratable acidity, pH, total phenols, total anthocyanins, and total tannin, are essential parameters for red wine quality [ 3 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. Differences in oenological parameters (alcohol content, titratable acidity, pH, total phenols, total anthocyanins, and total tannin) between the six sub-regions of Ningxia were explored by ANOVA; rarely significant differences were found ( Table 1 ).…”

“…Phenolic compounds are important indicators of the taste characteristics of wine, such as astringency, bitterness, and mouth-feel, and they are present both as monomers and oligomers [ 26 , 33 ]. In total, 19 phenolic compounds were quantified by standard curve.…”

Mouthfeel subqualities in wines: A current insight on sensory descriptors and physical–chemical markers

“…More recently, the so‐called rapid sensory methods have been adopted as an alternative or in association with DA (Paissoni et al., 2020; Piombino et al., 2020). Briefly, the rapid sensory methodologies are traditionally divided into three categories: verbal‐, similarity‐, and reference‐based methods (Valentin et al., 2012).…”

Astringency sub‐qualities of red wines and the influence of wine–saliva aggregates

“…This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved addition, polysaccharides (Quijada-Morín et al, 2014;de Freitas and Mateus, 2012) and anthocyanins (Paissoni et al, 2020;Gonzalo-Diago et al, 2014) modulate astringency but their effect on aggregates and oral lubrication is still under research.…”

“…The aggregation and precipitation of tannin-protein complexes increases with ionic strength, lower pH and decreases with higher ethanol content (Boulet et al, 2016). In addition, polysaccharides (de Freitas & Mateus, 2012;Quijada-Mor ın et al, 2014) and anthocyanins (Gonzalo-Diago et al, 2014;Paissoni et al, 2020) modulate astringency but their effect on aggregates and oral lubrication is still under research.…”