Sensory characterisation of wines without added sulfites via specific and adapted sensory profile

Aim: In the few past years, consumer expectation has shifted toward low-additive foodstuffs. In the wine industry, this has been evidenced by the development of wines without any added SO2 during the winemaking process, including bottling. This has also led to the development of alternative methods to replace SO2 for winemaking, which, alongside the dearth of studies on these new production methods, raises the question of the sensorial impact of sulfites and sulfite alternatives on wines after aging. Methods and results: Wines were made from Merlot N. grapes at two different maturity levels, with or without SO2 addition throughout the whole process. From the same batch, wines were also produced with bioprotection applied to the harvest only as an alternative to SO2. Sensory evaluation was performed after two years of aging, with the development of specific and adapted training methods to determine the sensory profile of the wines. In this way, a high sensory proximity between wines without SO2 (whether produced with bioprotection or not) was highlighted, and they were described as significantly different from wines with SO2. Conclusion: This approach demonstrated that, for expert tasters and despite the use of bioprotection, wines without SO2 had specific sensory characteristics compared to wines with SO2. Significance of the study: This study was a first sensory step towards characterising wines produced without any added SO2. In future work, it could be used to highlight chemical compounds associated with sensory descriptors discriminating between them.