The Australian Wine Research Institute

This is a free event but bookings are essential

Register here (please limit registrations to 2 participants per organisation)

For more information, please contact:

Neil Scrimgeour | Ph:  8313 6600

Summary

The perceived aroma of a wine is determined by the presence of a range of volatile compounds. Although most wine sensory characteristics are driven by positive ‘fruity’ and varietal attributes, there is always a risk that negative attributes will also contribute to the aroma of a wine, if grapegrowing or processing issues occur. These can include ‘smoky’ or ‘medicinal’ characters from bushfire events, ‘band-aid’ or ‘barnyard’ characters from Brettanomyces spoilage and ‘sherry-like’ or ‘reductive’ characters that can form during bottle ageing.

Sensory aroma perception is a different experience for different individuals, with each having their own way of describing familiar aromas based on their unique experiences. There are also varying levels of sensitivity and recognition thresholds among humans for many aromatic compounds, with some individuals simply unable to perceive certain aromas (known as anosmia). This is why one winemaker may describe different aromas from another when evaluating the same wine.

This wine taints and faults workshop will provide participants with the opportunity to familiarise themselves with a range of different fault and taint compounds and get a better understanding of their origin. Although it will not include formal threshold testing, participants will be able to judge their own abilities to detect these compounds under randomised blind testing conditions.

The suite of taint and fault compounds presented may form the basis of a sensory proficiency program available to Australian winemakers. This would allow wine producers to regularly assess the sensory proficiency of their winemaking teams and benchmark their performance against others in the industry.

Event Region(s)
Adelaide