The importance of higher alcohols and esters for sensory evaluation of Rheinriesling and Chardonnay wine varieties

Abstract

For a consumer, one of the first characters for evaluation of wine is its scent. A pleasant aroma of wine associated with the subsequent taste experience can be remembered by the consumer for a long time and appreciated appropriately. For this reason, the aromatic properties of wine are very important to both consumers and producers. The question, however, is to assess the evaluation of wine sensory evaluation based on a rapidly developing chemical analysis without the use of a panel of evaluators. This study has dealt with the problem of the correlation of sensory evaluation of wine with the total content of higher alcohols and esters in wine prepared from the same wine varieties (Rheinriesling and Chardonnay) on the same vineyard under the same climatic conditions and processed using the same production technology in the years 2008 - 2012. The total content of higher alcohols and esters was determined by gas chromatography with a mass spectrometer (GC/MS). The correlation between the sensory evaluation and the total content of higher alcohols has not been established. However, the direct effect of the total content of the esters on the level of the sensory analysis of the two varieties studied was demonstrated. This can be an important economic indicator for a manufacturer who can estimate the sensory quality of the wine only on the basis of chemical analysis and thus estimate the success of the wine on the consumer market. © 2018 Potravinarstvo Slovak Journal of Food Sciences.