foods Review The Sensory Space of Wines: From Concept to Evaluation and Description. A Review Jean-Christophe Barbe * , Justine Garbay and Sophie Tempère Unité de Recherche Œnologie, ISVV, Université de Bordeaux, EA 4577, USC 1366 INRAE, F33882 Villenave d’Ornon, France;
[email protected] (J.G.);
[email protected] (S.T.) * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: The concept of sensory space was first formulated over 25 years ago and has been widely adopted in oenology for around the last 15 years. It is based on both the common organoleptic characteristics of products and the mental representations built by specific groups of people. Explor- ing this concept involves first assessing whether it already exists for tasters, and, when this is the case, conducting perceptual evaluations to verify its effectiveness before potentially highlighting the associated sensory properties. The goal of this review, which focuses on applications linked to the field of oenology, is to study how these three steps are carried out, how the corresponding tasks and tests are performed and managed, and the type of results that can be obtained. Keywords: sensory characterization; sensory space; descriptive sensory analysis; concept evalua- tion; wine 1. Introduction Citation: Barbe, J.-C.; Garbay, J.; Tempère, S. The Sensory Space of From the beginning of the 19th century to the mid-20th century, wine tasting was Wines: From Concept to Evaluation epitomized by a poor vocabulary that mainly focused on the visual aspect and mouthfeel. In and Description. A Review. Foods 1952, Maynard A. Amerine introduced the aromatic evaluation of wine with his Californian 2021, 10, 1424.