Wildfires produce smoke that can carry organic compounds to a vineyard, which are then absorbed by the grape berry and result in wines with elevated levels of smoke-related phenols. These phenols have been found to have a large impact on the flavor of wines, being the cause of a smokey flavor with a lasting ashy aftertaste. When evaluating the sensory profile of these wines, there is an observed problem due to the lasting nature of these undesirable attributes and potential flavor carryover between samples. Through the use of standard and temporal attribute check-all-that-apply, this research desires to better understand the impact of smoke on the sensorial profiles of wines with various levels of smoke phenols (high, moderate, and low). Additionally, through the employment of different interstimulus protocols, the effectiveness of rinses on diminishing the smoke flavor in wines and optimal time separation were investigated. It was determined that a 1 g/L pectin rinse in between samples with a 120 s separation is optimal to ensure the removal of smoke attribute perception. This work also indicated the need to look deeper at the effects of the in-mouth hydrolysis of glyconjugate phenols that impact overall smoke flavor.
Keywords: sensory analysis; smoke taint; wine.