Location: Horticultural Crops Production and Genetic Improvement Research Unit
Project Number: 2072-21000-057-001-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jun 1, 2020
End Date: May 31, 2025
Objective:
The objective is to partner with Oregon State University to better understand the sensory perception of smoke exposure-related compounds in different wines. A major need for research and the wine industry is to determine thresholds of smoke compounds in wines for better risk management. Before thresholds can be determined, however, we need to determine the chemical causation of negative smoke-related qualities in the wine. As known from previous work there are hundreds of volatile and nonvolatile compounds in wine, and not all of them cause a change in sensory perception. To innovate, and therefore perform useful smoke related-research in the future, such as determining rejection thresholds for these smoke compounds in wine, it is important to first determine which compounds are causing changes to sensory perception, and if those changes are considered positive or negative to wine quality. Once causation of negative sensory qualities related to smoke exposure are determined, a large amount of other research can be efficiently conducted including mitigation strategies, threshold determination, economic analysis and more. Key products that are anticipated from this work include sensory data from smoke exposure and peer-reviewed publications.
Approach:
This effort is intended to leverage existing and ongoing research efforts looking at changes in smoke exposed grapes and wine. The cooperator will provide expertise in sensory science.
