Resumen de Assessing the Sensory Profiles of Sparkling Wine over Time
Maya R. Hood White, Hildegarde Heymann
Sparkling wine sensory properties are driven by many factors, including the amount of CO2 and pressure in the bottle. We were interested in characterizing the sensory attributes of California blanc de blanc sparkling wine and the sensory impact of various effervescence conditions, such as artificial nucleation points, on the aroma and flavor. Beginning with the effect of effervescence conditions on the aroma and flavor intensity, three different nucleation treatments (air-dried glasses, paper towel-dried glasses, and glasses with an etched nucleation point) were compared. Thirty-three panelists assessed overall aroma and flavor intensity for each treatment in triplicate. No statistically significant differences in aroma and flavor intensity were found. Following this, the sensory profiles of eight Californian blanc de blanc sparkling wines were determined using a generic descriptive analysis. Eleven trained judges used visual, aroma, taste, mouthfeel, and bubble descriptors to characterize the sensory differences among the sparkling wines. The characterization was done at both 1 and 5 min after pouring, using the same descriptors, to assess temporal variation. In addition, the atmospheric pressure of each wine bottle was measured to determine the influence of pressure on taste and aroma over time. Sparkling wines assessed at 1 and 5 min showed a significant difference in all wines. This difference was characterized by a decrease in bubble size and concentration and allowed for greater differences within the sample set; thus, at 5 min there was a greater differentiation among the wines. No correlations between bottle pressure and sensory attributes were found.
