Distinguishing between two crus : as easy as picking the right side ? : Effect of expertise on conceptual and perceptual representations of Beaujolais wines

L’expertise a été étudiée en psychologie cognitive afin de comprendre les mécanismes psychologiques et les compétences intervenant dans différents domaines d’expertise. Dans le domaine du vin, les quelques études menées suggèrent que les experts organiseraient leurs connaissances autour de « prototypes » de couleur ou de cépage. L’objectif général de cette thèse visait à répondre aux questionnements théoriques concernant les représentations des vins d’experts et de novices, ainsi qu’aux questionnements de la filière concernant les perceptions des vins du Beaujolais. Pour cela, l’effet de l’expertise sur les représentations des vins a été évalué en comparant les performances de trois panels (experts, novices familiers et novices non familiers). Dans une première partie, l’organisation hiérarchique des connaissances a été étudiée en la comparant au système de classification des vins. Pour cela, une tâche de tri libre hiérarchique a été réalisée sur des étiquettes de vins de différents cépages, vignobles et appellations. Des interviews complémentaires ont permis d’identifier les critères et les stratégies utilisés par les panélistes. Dans une deuxième partie, les retranscriptions des interviews ont été analysées par analyse textuelle afin d’apporter des informations complémentaires sur les représentations des vins des différents panels. Dans une troisième partie, les représentations conceptuelles et perceptuelles des vins pour des niveaux de catégorisation de plus en plus spécifiques (cépage, appellation et lieu-dit) ont été comparées. Pour cela, une tâche de tri binaire a été réalisée pour chaque niveau de catégorisation sur des vins et les étiquettes de ces mêmes vins.Expertise was studied in cognitive psychology in order to understand the psychological mechanisms and the abilities involved in various areas of expertise. In the wine field, the few studies conducted on expertise suggest that the knowledge representation of experts is organized around “prototypes” derived from wines of different colours or grape varieties. The general purpose of this thesis was to address 1) theoretical questions about knowledge representation of wines among experts and novices, and 2) wine industry questions about Beaujolais wine perceptions. To this end, the effect of expertise on knowledge representations of wines was evaluated by comparing the performance of three different panels (experts, familiar novices and unfamiliar novices). In a first section, the hierarchical organization of knowledge was studied, and compared to the wine classification system. To this end, a free hierarchical sorting task was conducted on wine labels from different grape varieties, vineyards and appellations. Additional interviews allowed us to identify the criteria and the strategies used by panelists.In a second section, the transcribed interviews were analyzed by textual analysis in order to provide additional information about the wine representations of the different panels.In a third section, the conceptual and the perceptual wine representations of panelists were compared at different levels of abstraction going from the more general to the more specific (grape variety, appellation and lieu-dit) were compared. A binary sorting task was conducted for each level of abstraction using wines and labels of the same wines as stimuli

Do wine experts share the same mental representation? A drawing elicitation study with wine makers, sellers, and critics

International audienceWine experts’ mental representations have often been studied by comparing experts and novices without differentiating between the types of experts. Yet, it seemed that experts developed skills through their training and practice, and thus may have different wine representations. The first objective of this study was to examine the effect of experts’ background and actual occupation on their wine representation. Beaujolais was used as a case study as this vineyard was in constant evolution with the emergence of new mentions such as Pierres Dorées. The second objective was to evaluate how new information was integrated in experts’ mental representation. Three panels were recruited: wine makers, wine sellers, and wine critics. To access their mental representations, a drawing elicitation method was combined with an interview. The results highlighted a common structure in the representations of experts based on two poles: the first pole was linked to the environment and the vineyard, and the second pole was linked to the intrinsic aspects of wines. This universal mental representation of wine would be based on the experts' long-term memory knowledge acquired during training. Some differences linked to the experts’ profession, experience and exposure were also observed. These differences could be explained in terms of perceptual learning. Through shared experiences and exposures, experts with similar occupations and backgrounds developed similar mental representations (e.g., wine makers or wine sellers). Conversely, despite a common occupation, experts with a different experience, practice and background developed idiosyncratic wine representations (e.g., wine critics)

Concours de vin : de la cohérence entre les jurys à la perception des consommateurs

International audienceCahier technique dégustation. Études de l'impact des concours gratifiant les vins de classement et de médailles auprès des consommateurs à faible implication. On constate que le packaging influence positivement. L'homogénéité de la notation par les jurys a été étudiée. Celle-ci est forte. La notation par les jurys est reconnue avec raison comme gage de qualité

Are specific PDO wines sensorially recognisable? A study in the Beaujolais vineyard with different types of experts

Wine PDOs are based on their place of origin and technical product specifications. Some studies have looked at sensory differences between PDOs, but few have shown real sensory specificities for each PDO. These studies have focused on well-established PDOs, leaving aside the new appellations developed in recent years. This article investigates experts’ sensory representation (study 1) and actual descriptions of wines in blind and informed tastings (study 2). To achieve this objective, we used the Beaujolais vineyard as a case study and, more specifically, the new Beaujolais Pierres Dorées PDO. Three groups of experts were recruited and separated according to their professions: Makers, Sellers, and Critics. The results showed that the new Beaujolais Pierres Dorées PDO did not present a specific sensory description, neither in the mental representations of the experts nor during the tasting. Providing information on the PDO of the wine samples did not lead to different descriptions compared to blind tasting. However, wines from the same appellation were described more similarly in the informed tasting than in the blind one, suggesting some assimilation or contrast effects. No effect of the type of experts was observed during the tasting. However, experts store different wine attributes in memory depending on their experience and practice. The Makers stored very precise descriptions, the Sellers a few punchline descriptors, and the Critics were situated between the other two groups with both punchline descriptors and satellite descriptors

Tell us how you taste wine, and we will tell you what kind of expert you are !

International audienceWhether “gurus”, “emperor” or “influencers”, wine consumers need references to help them choosing and buying wines. Given the diversity of possible sources (reviews from wine guides, wine merchants'recommendations or back wine label), where should they turn? Are all wine experts consensual in the way they taste wines? Do they differ depending on their domain of expertise: wine makers, sellers, or critics? This study aimed at understanding how experts apprehend wine tasting in relation to their professional objectives. A mixed design strategy combining content analysis of personal narratives of renowned wine experts with semi-structured interviews of wine professionals was used. Results confirmed that wine experts shared a common way of tasting wines, although their objectives and the way they report their wine tasting experiences differ according to their professional activities. Makers transcribe their perceptions by a list of sensory and technical-based terms focused on the absence or presence of wine defects to assess technical acceptability, Sellers are storytellers generating appeal and pleasure for consumers, and Critics write positive and metaphoric reviews to better highlight the best samples they taste. This raises new questions for the industry about the way in which wines are tasted, a routine practice that is internationally followed by wine professionals, but which may need to be renewed. Combining different data sources appeared to be a promising way to gain in-depth information in exploratory research

Wines for tomorrow: what is the potential consumer acceptability?

International audienceIn the climate change context, wine industry is source of proposals to help producers’ adaptation. One of the major challenges is to move from the current grape varieties to new ones. The aim of this study is to evaluate the consumers’ acceptation of three new varietal adaptations. For this purpose, 65 French consumers from Lyon were recruited to carry out six pairwise preference tests composed of two sets (red and white) of three pairs of wine samples, one pair corresponding to a single adaptation. For example, a pair was composed of a Gamay wine (from current grape variety) and a Gamaret wine (from adaptation grape variety). For each pair, the selected wines came from the same area, producer, and vintage. Then, twenty participants were called back to conduct focus groups to better understand the importance given to the grape variety in their current and future wine choice, purchase, and consumption. Results showed that only one varietal adaptation was preferred by consumers in contrast to current grape varietal wines. These results could be explained in terms of a greater familiarity of consumers with the wine selected. Focus groups data showed that consumers were indifferent to the question of grape variety but not to that of appellation. The most important criterion finally remains hedonic combined with a strong demand of clarity and transparency about any production changes. This exploratory work highlights the richness of information provided by combining quantitative and qualitative approaches. Questioning consumers on their future expectations seems to be crucial to better guide professional current strategies. These first results revealed a discrepancy between the concerns of professionals and consumers regarding the grape variety and need to be confirmed with other consumers panels

Wine competition: from between-juries consistency to sensory perception of consumers

Wine is a complex product offering to consumer a multitude of choices. Considering this diversity, wine competitions provide a way of helping consumers in their choices. However, the dramatic increase of wine contests in the last fifteen years has led to an increase in the number of award-winning wines. Is a medal really a guarantee of quality or having a medal is just a matter of chance? Two studies were therefore conducted during 3 years in a French wine competition. The first study assessed the impact of the order in which the wine was assessed, and the variability between juries’ judgements and therefore the chances of winning an award. For this purpose, the same wine was placed on all jury tables at the first and penultimate positions of the tasting series. Wines were rated, using the OIV-UIOE score sheet. Score differences were analyzed between tasting juries. The second study sought confirmation by a consumer panel of the medals awarded during the competition. A hedonic test of both award-winning and non-awarded wines was organised, in order to verify whether the awarded wines were indeed preferred by consumers

Wine competition: from between-juries consistency to sensory perception of consumers

Wine is a complex product offering to consumer a multitude of choices. Considering this diversity, wine competitions provide a way of helping consumers in their choices. However, the dramatic increase of wine contests in the last fifteen years has led to an increase in the number of award-winning wines. Is a medal really a guarantee of quality or having a medal is just a matter of chance? Two studies were therefore conducted during 3 years in a French wine competition. The first study assessed the impact of the order in which the wine was assessed, and the variability between juries’ judgements and therefore the chances of winning an award. For this purpose, the same wine was placed on all jury tables at the first and penultimate positions of the tasting series. Wines were rated, using the OIV-UIOE score sheet. Score differences were analyzed between tasting juries. The second study sought confirmation by a consumer panel of the medals awarded during the competition. A hedonic test of both award-winning and non-awarded wines was organised, in order to verify whether the awarded wines were indeed preferred by consumers

Oxidation in wine: Does expertise influence the perception?

International audienceWines can develop off-odours that depreciate their quality. Among them, oxidation is one of the most prevalent. The main objective of this work was to study the perception of wine oxidation through the categorization of oxidized wines perceived as not-faulty/faulty depending on the expertise of participants. For this purpose, one white wine and one red wine were spiked with three volatile oxidation compounds (acetaldehyde, phenylacetaldehyde and methional) in order to recreate twelve levels of oxidation in a controlled way. Samples were submitted to orthonasal tasting for being categorized by wine experts and novices and coupled to a free description task. Results demonstrated that experts were significantly more consensual to categorize oxidized wines than novices. However, the difference between the two groups was not of great magnitude. To find an explanation, a posteriori individual data treatment was carried out. This analysis highlighted five particular behaviours as a function of the samples’ oxidation level, irrespective of the level of expertise. Results also highlighted that for the experts, the frontier between the two categories (not-faulty/faulty) was significantly clearer for the white wine than for the red wine. This same tendency was also observed for the novices

The Hidden Sides of Sourness Perception: Is Acid just a Basic Taste?

International audienceIn sensory studies, sour taste is considered a basic taste without further considerations. Yet, many foods and beverages are composed of a variety of organic acids with potentially different acidifying power and sensory quality. This is the case for instance in wine, coffee, ramen soup, apple, or apricot. Whether natural, added or produced during fermentation the interactions between different acids have been considered recently as a driver of quality and/or acidification. Depending on the food product or beverage, different acids are empirically used as reference standards to familiarise or train panels for descriptive profiles (e.g., lactic acid for yoghurt or tartaric acid for wine). Based on these observations, this study aimed at determining whether organic acids are different from each other from a sensory perspective. Three series of six tetrad tests comparing varying water solutions of four organic acids (tartaric, malic, citric, and lactic) were performed with a panel of 12 wine professionals. Then, the best water condition was submitted to 110 French wine professionals by combining a descriptive test using the check-all-that-apply method and an identification test. Results showed significant differences at alpha = 0,01% between all acids in an equimolar condition. Each acid was described differently with aromatic (apple, lemon), other taste (bitterness), and somatosensory descriptors (astringency, metallic, bold, roundness, freshness). The identification test showed a high variability of the percentage of correct identification from 41% for citric and tartaric acids to 50% and 59% for respectively malic and lactic acids, with recurring inversions observed between tartaric and citric acids. To conclude, this study highlighted a discrimination between organic acids under water condition with multiple sensory markers, paving the way for possible sensory identification. For the wine field, there are major issues to determine the interaction between acids in the sensory profile in relation to recent regulations