In this Masterclass, participants will be able to increase their understanding of wine sensory evaluation. This will involve gaining appreciation of how when we taste a wine there are three things to consider: a person (their physiology and psychology), what is in the wine glass (i.e., the chemical composition), and the integration of the two. The Workshop will provide access to information about how people experience wine (e.g., how we perceive and remember wines), and opportunity to participate in wine tastings and sensory exercises that exemplify what is meant by “flavour” and “mouth-feel” in wine, how people differ in what they smell and taste in the same wine, and how our minds can over-ride our sensory processes to ‘trip us up’ when judging wines, even when we have substantial wine expertise. The Workshop will include tastings of selected wine varietals to demonstrate methods for characterising wines, including the different expressions (i.e., different flavour profiles) of wines from the same grape varietal (e.g. Sauvignon blanc) as a function of source of origin (i.e., when produced in different geographical locations or terroirs).
Overview of Sessions
Session I: Introduction to wine sensory evaluation
• Appreciating flavour (the nuts and bolts of smell & taste), including how people differ in what they perceive (will include a wine tasting and sensory exercise)
• The sensations involved in ‘mouth-feel’
• Appreciating more abstract wine qualities such as balance, texture, and complexity
• Wine and language
• Wine and emotion
• How our mind can over-ride our sensory experience (e.g., the influence of colour on what we smell). This will include a wine sensory evaluation/exercise.
Session II: Sensory appreciation of a wine’s characteristics
• An overview of methods that professionals use for wine sensory evaluation (including how they can be adapted for sensory evaluation at the winery bench)
• How to go about characterizing the flavour of a wine varietal (e.g., Sauvignon blanc or Chardonnay) and the concept of wine typicality (will include a tasting)
• Recent wine research that provides evidence of geographical indication (i.e., influence of terroir or source-of-origin) on a wine varietal’s expression
• Other wine qualities such as:
o Sensory interaction of wine components (e.g., how aroma of strawberry can influence perception of the taste of sweetness)
o The elusive concepts of ‘complexity’ and ‘minerality’ in wine – what do people mean by these terms?
o Other topics participants may want to raise