Application of sensory analysis to champagne wine characterisation and discrimination

This study represents the first steps in the elaboration of a strategy devoted to control Champagne wine quality based on sensory analysis. A fixed choice profile technique was used to detect sensory differences by qualitatively and quantitatively characterising gustatory and olfactory properties of over 56 Champagne wines. 64 attributes were reduced to a working set of 19 objective attributes showing a good range of scores, low incidence of zeroes and no hedonic aspects. The trained panellist repeatability as well as their discriminative efficiency was estimated. During this 2-year study approximately 5400 ratings were made and stored in a database. Panel performance improved with time. Sensory profiles of samples changed with time, although not in the same way for each wine. It is concluded that the fixed choice technique is feasible for QA. Future studies will examine calibration studies.