Generation of wine sensory descriptors by one-step method based on free profile and their use to establish the typicity of PDO wines

Abstract

The typicity of wines is related to their sensory characteristics, which allow them to be differentiated from other wines. Different sensory methods have been applied to try to detect the sensory characteristics responsible for the typicity of Protected Designation of Origin wines (PDO). However, so far, none of them has been completely successful. In this study, a new one-step method based on free profile and comparative analysis by pairs was applied to generate sensory descriptors of wines. The discriminant power of the sensory attributes generated among wines from 4 different PDO wines from the Spanish Autonomous Community of Castilla y León was evaluated. The study was carried out with wine experts and 159 white, rosé, and red wines were tasted. The judges generated 245 attributes which were reduced to 95 (11 defects, 20 visual, 48 olfactory and 16 taste and mouthfeel). A Multifactorial Analysis was carried out with the data of contingency matrices based on the frequency of citation. The results obtained showed that the sensory descriptors generated allowed the wines to be distinguished according to their origin, being the discriminant power significantly higher when the visual, olfactory and gustatory attributes were considered separately.