wine and food preparing
Week 6 Part ONE Sensory Assessment / Evaluation
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Week 6 Part ONE
Module A: Sensory Evaluation Intro
Introduction of sensory assessment / evaluation
Video resource: Sensory evaluators
Three types of scientific sensory tests
Attributes for sensory evaluation
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Sensory Evaluation
The field of sensory evaluation as a recognized scientific discipline: more than 50 to 60+ years!
Our armed forces played a role in developing sensory evaluation during World War II.
sensory information has
been used to identify key drivers of a product’s acceptance
that can help companies make marketing decisions
sensory information has
been used to identify key drivers of a product’s acceptance
that can help companies make marketing decisions
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Video Resource: Sensory Evaluators – What is like to be paid to taste food
Citation: Insider
Sensory Evaluation
Hedonic testing
Level of their “liking”; preference of one product over another
Large numbers (50 to 100) needed
Score specific odors, flavors, tastes or textures on scales to provide numerical data (statistical analysis)
Repeat measurements required for reliable data
Three basic types of sensory tests:
acceptance or preference using consumer panelists or untrained panelists;
descriptive analysis using trained expert panelists; or
discrimination tests using trained or consumer panelists
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Sensation versus Perception
Sensation
An organism’s (your) response to a stimulus in the environment
Perception
The brain’s (your) interpretation of the information gathered by the senses
“You take a wine and determine that you do not like the wine.”
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Sensory Evaluation
Logical order to evaluate attributes for sensory evaluation:
Appearance
Odor
Texture
Flavor
To perceive these attributes, we use
Vision (sight)
Nose (olfaction)
Touch
Gustation
Wine is a complex
liquid sensory
Stimulus
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Sensory Thresholds
All different!
If a group of folks are tasting a wine, or some other food or beverage for that matter, you may all experience the food somewhat differently
This is due to your varying thresholds.
Sensory threshold
For any given aroma, flavor, or taste, there is a concentration below which we are no longer able to detect it.
This point is called sensory threshold
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Adaptation
Adaptation: a change in our sensitivity to the same stimulus
For example, our sense of smell adjusted to the smells in the new location.
Adaptation occurs in all sensory areas, but for wine tasting is most acute for smell and taste
You may experience as a temporary loss of ability to recognize or differentiate a smell or taste
Palate Fatigue
A lack of ability to concentrate
Take a break, refocus, think about something different for a while
Even expert wine tasters
Experience olfactory
adaptation!
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Sight
Overall quality in red wine is correlated with total color and pigment content
The visual stimuli in wine have hedonic quality
That is, looking at the wine can evoke pleasure or displeasure
Compared to the other senses, sight provides the least reliable information
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Smell
Smell is primary!
Most of our appreciation for wine is a function of wine odors
As a sensory evaluation tool, our sense of smell is the
Most important, sensitive, and versatile tool
Olfaction is
the sense of smell!
We use our sense of smell, both
When we actively inhale
When we hold wine in our mouth to “taste” the wine
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Smell
Our sense of smell is sensitive!
Human nose can be more sensitive than instruments designed to detect volatile chemical compounds.
It is believed we can sense an estimated 17,000 different odors
We can be trained to identify about 1000 odors
70-75% of “what we taste” is smell!
Wines are estimated to have about 200 odor compounds.
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Smell
Odor Blindness
Odor blindness is also known as anosmia.
Odor blindness can be complete or specific
Anosmia can be temporary or permanent
Temporary anosmia can be induced by a variety of conditions, ranging from head injury to the common cold
Recommended methods for evaluating sensory Aromas:
* take short 1 to 2 second sniffs and then wait about 20 seconds before repeating.
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Touch
We also experience wine from the perspective of touch:
Sensors in our mouth and nose allow us to respond to tactile stimuli in the wine
Senses of touch perceived in the mouth, not related to taste
Viscosity (related to liquid); consistency (semisolids); texture (solids)
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Taste
Taste is the ability to respond to dissolved molecules and ions called tastants
4 established sensory properties: Sweet, Sour, Bitter, Salty
Salt will rarely be found in wines
Increasingly a 5th sensory property is discussed: Umami
a flavor enhancer such as MGS
Gustation: action of tasting or the sense of taste
Flavor is broader and encompasses taste, aromatics, and chemical feelings.
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Taste
We detect taste with taste receptor cells.
These are clustered in taste buds.
A single taste bud is thought to contain 50-100 receptor cells and capable of capturing all 5 taste sensations
The solids must be dissolved to be tasted
The role of saliva
Other liquids work too!
Super tasters:
Individuals that have more taste buds on their tongues and can detect bitter notes at low concentrations
More than 30 taste buds in a space in the size of a hole punch on your tongue!
Taste
Taste Sensitivity
We are most sensitive to bitterness and the least sensitive to sweetness
Some parts of the tongue and mouth (the roof of the mouth and the back of the throat are also involved) may send stronger signals than other parts
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Taste modifiers
Substances that modify our ability to respond to specific subsequent taste stimuli
Try tasting some wine AFTER
Enjoying a breath mint
Brushing your teeth
Drinking OJ
Try different sequences of wines
Dry to sweet, then return to dry
Delicate to full and rich, then return to delicate
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Hearing
While you can listen to a wine, most wines will be silent
Excepting sparkling wines, which whisper at best!
Your sense of hearing can be a liability
Comments from other tasters can interfere with your own assessment and evaluation
Evaluating wine is potentially a very subjective experience
Hearing can also be beneficial, in that others assessments may be helpful and informative
Make your own assessments and notes first!
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Module B – Evaluating Wine
HB 409 Introduction to Wine
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Week 6 Part ONE: Sensory Evaluation
Module B: Evaluating Wine and Descriptors for Wine
Comparative wine tasting
Professional wine tasting (horizontal vs vertical)
Steps in tasting wine
Seven steps?
Or 4 S-approach (video resource)
Video Resource: Blind Wine Tasting by GuildSomm
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* You can find these links in Week 6 assigned reading folder.
Technical wine tasting Glossary (terms)*:
http://www.aromadictionary.com/articles/wineglossary_a-l_article.html
http://www.aromadictionary.com/articles/wineglossary_m-z_article.html
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Comparative Tasting
Approach
Common factor (origin, age or grape variety in relationship to
Your established quality characteristic
Your earlier tastings and notations of the same wine.
Best way to judge wines?
Compare them side-by-side
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Professional tastings
Horizontal
Looking for a new wine from a particular year
Typically you have the same varietal, the same region, and the same year, but producers are different/
Vertical
Wines from different vintages
Search for a new vintage from your favorite winery
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Wine Tasting example: Master of Taste San Francisco (video resource – about 3 mins)
https://winejournal.robertparker.com/a-matter-of-taste-san-francisco-2018
Evaluating Wine
The most prevalent evaluation system: 100-point scale
Wine ratings are
Extraordinary: 96-100
Outstanding: 90-95
Very good: 87-89
Above average: 80-86
Awarded the Best Wine of the 2018 Canberra International Riesling Challenge
Michigan Winery!
Scored 98 points
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Seven steps in tasting wine
See
Swirl
Sniff
Sip
Slurp
Swish
Swallow or spit
The Four S-Approach to tasting
Sight
Smell
Sip
Spit/Swallow
Video Resource: 3 mins Four s-approach (evaluating wine)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0Zk5A2KTLA
Sight
The first step in examining wine is to look at it!
Visual examination:
Wide range of color
Wide range of intensities
Relative clarity
What does it look like?
Brilliant? Legs/tears?
Hazy?
Nuances of color?
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Sight: Clarity
“Clarity is generally desired
Undesirables:
Haziness
Yeast residues or bacteria may cause haziness
Heavy flocculent deposits
Excessive temperature changes
Poor mouthfeel
Benign Deposits
Prolonged chilling or overchilling of whites
Crystalline deposits: Tartrate Crystals
Premium wines that have been aged
Sedimentary deposit
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Sight: Bubbles
The absence or presence and amount of bubbles is a consideration
Should they be there?
Sparkling wine
An early bottled still wine may show some initial bubbles at the edge
In sparkling wines
The smaller the better
The more persistent (retained) the better
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Sight: Visual Viscosity
Tears and legs are typically desired
Some variations depending on types of wine
Tears will also form after swirling.
The more alcohol, the narrower the tear
Sugars in the wine may impact the formation of tears as well
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Sight: Gauging white wines by color
Colorless:
Immature fruit? Or High acidity?
Smells like matches too?
They used too much sulphur dioxide.
Green tinged:
Reflects youthfulness
Typically from cooler regions
Light to dark straw colored:
Majority of white wines
Likely to be dry
Medium yellow through Gold:
Bottle aged wines
Usually sweeter, more luscious wines
Light brown
An older wine
"Off" condition or Excellent?
Expected color in white dessert wines
Brown to amber
Too old?
Excessive oxidation and/or heat?
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Sight: Gauging red wines by color:
Purple:
Young, often immature wine
Possibly fruity
Ruby red:
No purple, indicating some age
Red:
Transition period, several "years" of age
Red-brown:
A mature wine
Mahogany-red
Considerable maturity
Considerable bottle age
Increasingly tawny with age
Amber/Brown
Old, or prematurely aged, usually unsound
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Smell: Olfactory sensations
“Nose”
First impression
Olfactory senses tire
Swirl
Swirl wine in glass to release aromas.
Sniff and Nose in again
Rest glass on upper lip and bridge.
Inhale stronger than normal.
"Look” for:
Any reasonable (positive?) descriptor
Consider sweetness, intensity, fruit, oak, tannin and acidity
Freshness and fruitiness in youth
Harmonious balance and richness in maturity
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Smell: Olfactory sensations
Three odor categories
Aroma
Pleasant and desirable odor from the grapes
Bouquet
As wines age odors are added, and we now speak of bouquet
Off-odors
Undesirable odors that are foreign to wine
Off or non-wine odors
Taint of vinegar
Unsanitary conditions?
The burn of too much sulfur (back of the nose).
Moldy smell
Unsound cork or unclean barrels?
Hints of Madeira or Sherry?
Temperature mistreatment?
Oxidized - over the hill?
Wet dog or horse
Spoilage yeast?
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Sip!
Hold in mouth, chew, slurp, and swish around the mouth.
Sip: In-Mouth Impressions
With the wine in your mouth, you will notice:
Flavor
Taste
Tactile sensations; Touch
Structural components:
Organic acids: Tartness
Sugars: Sweetness and body
Tannins*: Bitterness and astringency
Alcohol: Sweetness, body and “heat”
Carbon dioxide: Bubbles that touch
* Tannins are typically not found at perceivable levels in white wines!
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Sip: In-Mouth Impressions
Flavor: Apparent maturity/age
Young:
Fresh, tart, grape-like, rough
Mature:
Accessible, smoother, moderated tannins, bottle bouquet
Over-aged:
Oxidized, Madeirized (a process that involves the heating and oxidization of a wine)
Note any off-odors
Hopefully none!
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Sip: In-Mouth Impressions
Taste:
Sweetness
Is the level appropriate for this wine?
Dry:
No perceptual sweetness
Low, medium, and high sugar
Increasing sweetness above your threshold
Cloying
Far too sweet; insipid
Balance
Relationship of acids and sugars
Bitterness
Typically found in young red wines; Elsewhere it may be a flaw
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Sip: In-Mouth Impressions
Touch: Astringency
Smooth
Low levels of astringency
Properly made, ready to drink wines
Rough
Young red wines
Tannic red wines
Old-world reds
Touch: Body
The relative sense of fullness
Does the wine fill your mouth?
Is it appropriate given the type of wine?
Most dry and semi-dry whites and rosé/blush table wines have low or light body
Most red table wines have medium body
Residual sugar increases body
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Sip: In-Mouth Impressions
Touch: Bubbles
Sparkling wines definitely have a touch
The degree of tactile sensation varies by the degree of carbonation
Touch: Alcohol
High alcohol provides a warm or hot sensation
Some suggest peppery
A wine high in alcohol may well be
described as hot, sweet, and pungent.
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Spit or swallow!
Swallow:
Savor and notice how long the flavor lingers, known as “finish”
Spit:
Often done by professionals
Multiple wineries/tasting rooms’ visit?
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Overall Impressions
Typicality
Is the wine typical given its
Region
Variety
Vintage
Producer
Price Range
?
Quality
Sense of awe?
Complexity?
Well combined set of sensory experiences?
Harmony, balance, . . .
WOW?
Can’t wait for . . .
?
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Video Resource: Blind Wine Tasting by GuildSomm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M4CzlgVInw&t=141s
(released on December 30, 2019)
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Week 6 Part ONE: Sensory Evaluation
Module C: Vinotypes and examples of sensory evaluation
Four vinotypes
Storage and serving temperature
Opening wine bottles
Examples of sensory evaluation
Michigan Wine Competition
International Taste Institute
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* Click on Week 6 assigned reading folder (HB 409 D2L)
(Tim Hanni, Master of Wine)
Citation: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/vinotype-what-are-you-wine-drinker-types-of-sweet-hypersensitive-tolerant-sensitive-science-a8046066.html
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Four categories (vinotypes):
Sweet
Hypersensitive
Sensitive
Tolerant
Physiological and psychological factors should be considered!
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Four vinotypes
Sweet Vinotype
Seek sweetness in wine to mask bitterness and alcohol.
Enjoy delicate and light wines.
Hyper-sensitive Vinotype
Appreciate vivid and intense sensory experience of taste, smell, light, touch, and sound
Avoid strong flavors and high alcohol
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Four vinotypes
Sensitive Vinotype
Flexible and adventurous!
Tolerant Vinotype
Demand intensity from their wines, big bold flavors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIUORSwNYps
Video resource – Tolerant vinotype by Tim Hanni
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General Preferences for Wine Styles from Tim Hanni, Master of Wine (from your e- textbook)
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Storage and Serving Temperatures
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Serving temperature
The volatile, odorous compounds in wine are also more readily noticed at higher temperatures
That is wine odors are masked by colder temperatures
If you are not enjoying a particular wine, try modifying the temperature!
Put it in ice a few minutes
Warm the wine by cupping the bowl in your hands
The higher the temperature, the more sensitive we are to sweetness
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Serving temperature
Some white wines do not generate adequate aromatics when served excessively cold.
Keep sparkling wines cold
For most white wines, remove bottles from the cooler and expose to room temperature for an hour first
Red wines stored at below 60F should be warmed up by exposure to room temperature (68-70F) one hour prior to serving.
Port and Sherries should be served at room temperature except Tawny Ports (50 to 60F).
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Suggested temperatures for storing and serving temperatures
Serving temperature
Decanting: a method of pouring contents into a special container and pouring into glasses from that container)
Should you open a white
wine ahead of serving it?.
The answer is No! Open just prior to serving
Red wines should be allowed to breath and opened from 1 to 2 hours prior to serving
Decanting is recommended for red wines only if they are more than five years of age.
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Opening Wine Bottles
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Video Resources by Wine Folly
How to Open a Bottle of Wine with a Corkscrew (1 min):
How to Open Champagne (2 mins)
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Causes of Wine Faults
Poor hygiene at the winery.
Excessive (oxidized) and/or insufficient (reductive) exposure of the wine to oxygen.
Excessive or insufficient exposure of the wine to sulphur.
Over-extended maceration of the wine either pre or post fermentation.
Faulty fining, filtering, and stabilization of the wine.
Use of non-sterile oak barrels.
Excessive barrel aging.
Use of poor quality corks.
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Causes of Wine Faults (cont’d)
Once a wine leaves the cellar other causes include:
Transport and storage before reaching the retailer.
Wines stored at extreme temperatures (heat and cold).
Corked wine stored upright (drying of corks, allowing air to contaminate wine).
Use of unclean glassware or glassware with soap residues.
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Examples of Sensory Evaluation
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Michigan Wines Competition
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Results from 2019 Michigan Wine Competition
http://michiganwinecollaborative.com/2019miwineawards/
Week 6 Online Assignment
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Video Resource: International Taste Institute (Example: Food & Drinks Sensory Evaluation)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm37alQxmtI
A blind test, based on the International Hedonic Sensory Analysis Method
Released on March 6, 2020