From the glass to the mouth: wine-related and human-physiological factors affecting retronasal aroma during wine consumption

In recent years this research group has initiated a new line of research focused on determining the chemical, biochemical and physiological factors affecting the composition of the retronasal aroma during wine consumption.

Unlike other studies related to the characterization of the aromatic composition of wines, this study requires new scientific approaches that not only focus on the wine itself, but also on the interaction of the wine and its chemical components (volatiles or not) with structures and components of the oral cavity (saliva, oral mucosa, oral microbiota) that mainly happen during wine intake.

This will have consequences on the kinetics of aroma release in the buccal-pharyngeal cavity, affecting the composition and amount of odorants that will reach the olfactory receptors, and in turn, the immediate and prolonged aroma perception (aromatic persistence), closely linked with consumer’s preferences and choices.

These studies require analytical methodologies for the analysis of aroma under consumption conditions, that have allowed to verify the impact of the non-volatile matrix of the wine and especially of the phenolic composition, on the retronasal aroma and its sensory impact.

A recent research also shows that physiological factors such as saliva flow and its composition or oral microbiota, also have an effect on the aromatic composition of the wine. We are also currently trying to understand if inter-individual differences related to oral physiology can determine differences in the perception of the wine aroma, and in the hedonic and emotional consumer response.

Finalist work for the SIVE OENOPPIA Prize 2019. The report reproduced in this clip was presented at the 12th edition of Enoforum (Vicenza, 21-23 May 2019)