S. Meillon*1,2; D. Viala 1; M. Medel 2; C. Urbano 2; G. Guillot 1; N. Jacquet 1; P. Schlich 2
1 Centre de Recherche Pernod Ricard, France
2 INRA, Centre Européen des Sciences du Goût, France
In the wine area, it is often stated that complexity is a mark of wine quality. However, except few qualitative studies, there is no data supporting this assumption. The first objective of this study was to measure perceived complexity in wine and to check any link with quality. A second objective was to investigate whether the Temporal Dominance of Sensation (TDS) technique can help in better understanding the perception of wine complexity by consumers.
An Australian Shiraz wine was partially dealcoholized using reverse osmosis technique to get 5 wines which alcohol content varied between 13.5 % and 8 %.
67 French wine consumers evaluated the quality (hedonic test) of these wines as well as their overall perceived complexity thanks to a continuous scale anchored with pictures to facilitate comprehension. They also evaluated the intensity of eight items supposed to be linked to perceived complexity in wine (familiarity, persistence, etc…). In parallel, 10 trained panelists described temporality of sensations in the same wines thanks to the TDS method which consists in identifying and rating sensations perceived as dominant repeatedly until the perception ends.
The overall complexity scale was well understood by consumers with a significant discrimination of wines. Alcohol-reduced wines were perceived as significantly less complex than standard wines. Results of hedonic test confirmed the hypothesis of a significant positive correlation between perceived complexity and liking.
Consumer evaluations and TDS results emphasized the multidimensionality of complexity term and enabled to get some elements for its understanding. Perceived complexity in wine appeared for consumers to be significantly correlated to the perception of persistence, power and number of aromas. TDS results confirmed the increase of the number of perceived sensations with complexity but also highlighted an increase in the superimposition of sensations along time with complexity.
