In recent years, owing to increasing interest in health in relation for food quality, consumer preference for organic products has gradually been moving from an elitist behavior to quite widespread ...consumption. This trend is also apparent for the wine industry, which has gradually been adopting organic production methods. Motivated by the increasing importance of consumer health protection, this paper analyzes consumer interest in buying organic wines with no additives, evaluating whether and to what extent consumers are willing to pay a higher price for organic wine with no added sulfites. With the aim to gain detailed knowledge about issues related to consumer health an ordered logit model was used to investigate the probability of achieving a premium prices as a function of the socioeconomic characteristics of consumers and the product attributes. Results indicate that environmental consciousness, and curiosity lead consumers to pay a higher price for these wines while naturalness and designation of origin are the attributes of organic wines positively related to the probability of paying a premium price for wine with no added sulfites. The results also show that inappropriate information discourage consumers from paying a price differential for wine without sulfites. The scientific value and originality of the paper include consumer perception of the health benefits of organic wines without additives. The outcomes confirm that consumers who are sensitive to environmental and quality issues are willing to pay a premium for quality food, and that wider information about wine with no added sulfites is required for effective price differentiation. Being Sulfite addition to food is an issue of increasing relevance in the agro-food sector, this study analyzes for the first time the consumer preference for organic wines by considering how the presence of additives in wine affect the purchasing behavior of consumers.
•Consumer interest in nutritional sustainable wines is increasing.•Consumer willingness to pay was investigated for wines without added sulfites.•Environmental concerns and product naturalness induce consumers to pay more for wine.•Inappropriate information may discourage consumers from paying a price differential.•Consumers are more likely to pay a price premium for a PDO/PGI wine.
One of the most important issues in the wine sector and prevention of adulterations of wines are discrimination of grape varieties, geographical origin of wine, and year of vintage. In this ...experimental research study, UV-Vis and FT-IR spectroscopic screening analytical approaches together with chemometric pattern recognition techniques were applied and compared in addressing two wine authentication problems: discrimination of (i) varietal and (ii) year of vintage of red wines produced in the same oenological region. UV-Vis and FT-IR spectra of red wines were registered for all the samples and the principal features related to chemical composition of the samples were identified. Furthermore, for the discrimination and classification of red wines a multivariate data analysis was developed. Spectral UV-Vis and FT-IR data were reduced to a small number of principal components (PCs) using principal component analysis (PCA) and then partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) were performed in order to develop qualitative classification and regression models. The first three PCs used to build the models explained 89% of the total variance in the case of UV-Vis data and 98% of the total variance for FR-IR data. PLS-DA results show that acceptable linear regression fits were observed for the varietal classification of wines based on FT-IR data. According to the obtained LDA classification rates, it can be affirmed that UV-Vis spectroscopy works better than FT-IR spectroscopy for the discrimination of red wines according to the grape variety, while classification of wines according to year of vintage was better for the LDA based FT-IR data model. A clear discrimination of aged wines (over six years) was observed. The proposed methodologies can be used as accessible tools for the wine identity assurance without the need for costly and laborious chemical analysis, which makes them more accessible to many laboratories.
This paper focuses on the study of the volatile, olfactometric, and sensory composition of base wines and their corresponding sparkling wines (14−24 months aging) obtained at semi-industrial scale ...during three consecutive harvests. The sensory profile of sparkling wine is more complex than that of base wine, with toasty, lactic, sweet, and yeasty notes being described by the panelists and an even sharper increase of these tastes in the cava reserve. On the other hand, during the second fermentation and subsequent aging in contact with lees, some compounds such as acetate and ethyl esters decrease in amount while others such as norisoprenoids, acetal, diacetyl, and furans appear or increase over time. These volatile compounds could be responsible for the sensory profile depending on their notes, as determined by sniffing. The differences in volatile composition are responsible for the changes observed in the sensory profile of cava with respect to base wine.
•A low temperature digestion procedure was tested for wines mineralisation.•Modena Lambrusco PDO wines collected from four vintages, 2009–2012, were analysed.•Results were compared with isotopic ...values of soils and wines coming from different district.•Tracing and discriminatory power of 87Sr/86Sr was investigated.
Geographical origin and authenticity of food are topics of interest for both consumers and producers. Among the different indicators used for traceability studies, 87Sr/86Sr isotopic ratio has provided excellent results. In this study, two analytical approaches for wine sample pre-treatment, microwave and low temperature mineralisation, were investigated to develop accurate and precise analytical method for 87Sr/86Sr determination. The two procedures led to comparable results (paired t-test, with t<tcrit). Furthermore, the precision of the whole analytical procedure was evaluated by using a control sample (wine sample), processed during each sample batch (calculated Relative Standard Deviation, RSD%, equal to 0.002%. Lambrusco PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) wines coming from four different vintages (2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012) were pre-treated according to the best procedure and their isotopic values were compared with isotopic data coming from (i) soils of their territory of origin and (ii) wines obtained by same grape varieties cultivated in different districts. The obtained results have shown no significant variability among the different vintages of wines and a perfect agreement between the isotopic range of the soils and wines has been observed. Nevertheless, the investigated indicator was not enough powerful to discriminate between similar products. To this regard, it is worth to note that more soil samples as well as wines coming from different districts will be considered to obtain more trustworthy results.
Shaoxing rice wine is one of the most typical representatives of Chinese rice wine. It is brewed under non-sterile condition with various microorganism growing at the same time and forms a special ...flavor. The aims of this study was to monitor the bacterial succession by MiSeq pyrosequencing and the volatile compound dynamics by HS-SPME/GC–MS during brewing process. Moreover, the volatile compounds and bacterial community were analyzed by partial least squares regression to evaluate the effect of bacteria on volatile compounds formation. The results showed that there were ten dominating genera during Shaoxing rice wine fermentation process. Ten genera, Bacillus, Leuconostoc, Lactococcus, Weissella, Thermoactinomyces, Pseudomonas, Saccharopolyspora, Staphylococcus, Enterobacter and Lactobacillus, were identified as the main bacteria. The Bacillus and Lactobacillus dominated the Chinese rice wine ecosystems. In addition, a total of 64 volatile compounds were identified, mainly esters, alcohols, carbonyl compound and phenols. Pseudomonas were involved in synthesis of a wide variety of volatile compounds. Thermoactinomyces, Bacillus and Lactococcus also played critical roles in the formation of volatile compounds.
GC-MS in chemical ionization mode (CI) was used as a simple, sensitive method for assaying 3-methyl-2,4-nonanedione (MND) in 67 red wines. MND content was shown to be lower in nonoxidized red wines ...and higher in oxidized red wines, that is, systematically exceeding the perception threshold (62 ng/L). Concentrations up to 340 ng/L in the most oxidized red wines were also evidenced. According to these quantitative data, the presence of MND alone was shown to modify significantly the flavor of the red wine as evaluated from fresh fruit flavor in red wine without MND to aromatic expression of rancio in wines with elevated concentrations (308.9 ng/L). Incidence of oxygen on its formation was also investigated. For the first time, elevated concentrations of this compound in various wines were demonstrated, that is, white, rosé, botrytized wines, and fortified wines made with over-ripened grapes. The lowest levels (2.9 ng/L) were found in nonoxidized white wines, whereas the highest levels were found in oxidized botrytized wines (293.8 ng/L). These results tend to demonstrate that MND is in general a good marker of oxidation in wines made with a maceration step between the skin and the pulp. These preliminary results provide a new analytical explanation of what is known in enology as the “vin de garde” concept.
This mini-review synthesises the present knowledge of microbial quorum-sensing, with a specific focus on quorum-sensing in yeast, and especially in wine yeast. In vine and wine ecosystems, yeast ...co-interact with a large variety of microorganisms, thereby affecting the fermentation process and, consequently, the flavour of the wine. The precise connections between microbial interactions and quorum-sensing remain unclear, but we describe here how and when some species start to produce quorum-sensing molecules to synchronously adapt their collective behaviour to new conditions. In
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
, the quorum-sensing molecules were identified as 2-phenylethanol and tryptophol. However, it was recently shown that also a quorum-sensing molecule formerly identified only in
Candida albicans
, tyrosol, appears to be regulated in
S. cerevisiae
according to cell density. This review describes the methods for detection and quantification of those quorum-sensing molecules, their underlying mechanisms of action, and their genetic background. It also examines the external stimuli that evoke the quorum-sensing mechanism in the wine-processing environment. The review closes with insight into the biotechnological applications that are already making use of the advantages of quorum-sensing systems and indicates the important questions that still need to be addressed in future research into quorum-sensing.
The Farm to Fork (F2F) Strategy, a key initiative of the European Commission under the European Green Deal, strives to make the European Union’s (EU) economy sustainable. Focused on the food system, ...the F2F Strategy prioritizes sustainability in agriculture, eco-friendly practices, biodiversity preservation, and climate change mitigation. It targets high food safety (FS) and environmental management (EM) standards across the Agri-food Supply Chain (ASC). Addressing sustainability challenges in the wine industry, this study delves into the Wine Value Chain (WVC). Emphasizing the intricate sustainability interplay within the WVC, this study concentrates on FS and EM to ensure the long-term viability of wine production. The primary goal is to create a comprehensive sustainability evaluation method for wineries, incorporating performance indicators from FS and EM components. The methodology involves assessing Food Safety Management Systems (FSMSs), evaluating Environmental Management Systems (EMSs), investigating contamination risks, and synthesizing results into a sustainability matrix. Findings highlight commendable FS practices, such as widespread Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) adoption and underscore the need for increased EM focus. Notable figures include a 76.2% adoption of the HACCP system and 68.8% of wineries implementing an EMS. Performance indicators become critical for sustainability assessment, forming the cornerstone to gauge the industry’s effective sustainability management aligned with the F2F Strategy. This study stresses the holistic integration of FS and EM practices, providing insights into workforce engagement, regulatory compliance, and sustainable objectives. This research offers a tool for evaluating and advancing sustainability in the wine industry culminating in a sustainability matrix.
► We research the influence of oak chips on aroma profile of Moravia Agria wines. ► Oak chips were added in two dose rates at different stages of the winemaking process. ► The point of addition of ...oak chips had an important effect on the aroma profile. ► All these treatments provide a viable alternative to the methods of traditional aging.
This paper reports on a complete study of the effect of wood, in the form of oak chips, on the volatile composition and sensory characteristics of Moravia Agria wines added at different stages of the fermentation process. Aroma compounds were analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Sensory profile was evaluated by experienced wine-testers. Oak chips were added to wines in two dose rates at different stages of the winemaking process: during alcoholic fermentation (AF), during malolactic fermentation (MLF) and in young, red Moravia Agria wine. Wines fermented with oak chips during AF showed higher concentrations of the ethyl esters of straight-chain fatty acids, ethyl, hexyl, isoamyl acetates and superior alcohols than the control wines. The higher concentrations of benzene compound, oak lactones and furanic compounds were found in wines in contact with oak chips during MLF. The use of oak chips gives rise to a different sensorial profile of wines depending of the point of addition. Higher intensities of woody, coconut, vanilla and sweet spices descriptors were obtained when a large dose rate of chips was employed.