Influence of variety and commercial yeast preparation on red wine made from autochthonous Hungarian and Canadian grapes. Part II. Oral sensations and sensory : instrumental relationships

Abstract

Eight wines were made from two Canadian hybrid grape varieties (Maréchal Foch, Baco Noir) and two Hungarian Vitis vinifera varieties (Kadarka, Lemberger). One half was kept untreated and the other half received a commercial yeast preparation (OptiRed^®) before fermentation. The wines were subjected to descriptive analysis of the oral sensations elicited by a trained sensory panel. Analysis of variance showed that the varieties differed for 12 of the 13 attributes examined. Principal components analysis (PCA) assisted in characterising the sensory profile of each wine. Maréchal Foch produced wines with the highest viscosity, while Baco Noir wines were characterised by high-intensity scores for heat and irritation. Kadarka was differentiated from other wines by the low intensity of the astringency sub-qualities, and Lemberger wines were characterised by their higher perceived acidity and particulate in-mouth scores. The addition of OptiRed^® had no impact on any of the oral sensations assessed. PCA on the combined sensory and analytical data sets showed that both sensory and physico-chemical parameters were important in defining the factors and in separating individual wines, which were grouped closely in the PCA space by variety. While many significant associations were found between the sensory and analytical attributes, we conclude that pH and ethanol are responsible for many of the observed sensory differences.