Sensory Profile of Portuguese White Wines Using Long‐Term Memory: A Novel Nationwide Approach

Abstract

White wine sensory profiling of all 12 Protected Geographical Indications (PGIs) of mainland Portugal was achieved through completion of extended sensory questionnaires by 20 professional wine experts. No samples were assessed; the experiment was based on memory alone. Three macro-zonings were found and typicality differences were statistically validated and sensory described. PGI MINHO was found the most typical of all PGIs, with several extreme rates on Color, Aroma and Taste. SOUTHERN cluster of the four meridional PGIs presented several extreme, therefore typical, sensory assessments, mostly opposite to the profile of PGI Minho. Color tonality, alcohol and acidity were mutually related and respective variations were correlated with published findings and expressed as key factors for regional macro-zoning differentiation. Moreover, with the proposed methodology it was possible to achieve a novel nationwide sensory characterization of PGIs, overcoming ongoing macroscaling and sample representativeness limitations and envisaging new nation-sized sensory studies. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONSThis innovative nationwide study on white wine typicality, namely on sensory profiles of PGI (and PDO) certified wines, may contribute to the debate of scale factors that result in significant gains in areas such as wine certification (3-5 certification boards instead of existent 12), admission of transregional wine certification for high volume brands and a better and clearer communication and marketing that would reach a larger group of consumers with condensed information on typicality. Moreover, to develop a method that bypass the sampling problem of wines that would be representative of a given PGI or, in general, a nation-sized area may be considered useful and widely applicable to sensory studies.

Sensory profile characterization and typicality assessment of PDO “Bairrada” and PGI “Beira Atlântico” red wines

“…We can argue that methodology proposed by Jose-Coutinho et al (2012, 2015a, 2015b could be a valid alternative to the conventional wine tasting methods when intended to identify wine regions profiles, although further work on other regions might continue.…”

“…Jose-Coutinho et al (2012, 2015a, 2015b investigated white and red wine sensory profiles of the 12 protected geographical indications of mainland Portugal. Evidence of clusters grouping several wine regions under the same sensory profile suggests that these 12 regions could be grouped into three to five major macro zonings that originate a much broader territorial reading.…”

Finding Sensory Profilers Amongst Red Wine Composition: A Novel Nationwide Approach

“…Determining inner key profilers, from a novel nationwide sensory study Based on nationwide sensory research (Jose-Coutinho et al, 2013, 2015, 20 Portuguese wine experts have completed 12 individual sensory questionnaires using their vast cognitive long-term memory regarding each of the sensory typicality of each of the 12 Portuguese PGI red wine regions (excluding the islands). No wine samples were assessed and no training phase was required.…”

Novel Memory-Based Sensory Approach to Assess Large-Scale Typicality: The Case of Mainland Portugal Red Wines

“…Among the scientific community, our novel, nationwide, sample-free, noncalibrated, expert memory-based method was accepted [29,71], as it was challenged on the basis that the data relied on respondents' perceptions rather than direct experience. In this new research, we compare the results mentioned before in this study-signaled as Experiment 1 (LTM)-with the completion of the same questionnaire (Supporting Information) by 19 local experts from the single PGI Beira Atlântico-Experiment 2 (WS)-as a result of a blind tasting of 15 young red wine samples, representing the leading supermarket brands of this wine region.…”

“…Following our recently published white wine nationwide study [29], encompassing a novel memory-based DA, each member of our panel of professional experts was asked to mentally retrieve and assess his prototypical sensory profile of each of the 12 mainland Portugal PGIcertified young red wines. To our knowledge, this is the first macroscale sensory study covering a whole wine-producing country.…”