9 - Rebranding wine using sensory profiling data: A case study

The rapid rise of locally produced wine in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley, with a concomitant increase in wine purchases, is a recognized trend in Canada's consumer goods industry. To investigate the elements of a developing taste culture unique to the region's artisanal wines, we organized two sensory evaluations of nine Okanagan Valley (Canada) and one Columbia Valley (the United States) merlot wines in a tasting conducted by six wine professionals. Participants evaluated each wine for seven aroma descriptors and eight taste and flavor descriptors, following Guinard's (2006) descriptive analysis methodology. They then ranked wines based on organoleptic attributes and assigned an overall quality score to each wine based on a 20-point scoring sheet (Noble, 1995). Because the evaluations were blind tastings, assessments were based solely on sensory perceptions and free of influence from branding or any previous experience with specific varietals. A focus group following the tastings discussed participants' assessments, noting the perceptions that informed their evaluations. We used analysis of variance (ANOVA), principal components analysis (PCA), and product mean differentiation using Fisher's least significant difference (LSD), following Lawless and Heymann (2010), to mine the resulting data. Our results reveal that different sensory characteristics in combination enabled our panelists to discriminate among the 10 wines. The wines were solely differentiated based on the perception of the following descriptors: oak aroma, oak flavor, berry flavor, balance, length of finish, and quality score. Any preconceived notions regarding wine qualities are irrelevant in the context of a critical (and blind) sensory analysis (Cavicchi et al., 2014). That said, a region-specific taste culture influences preferences for particular wine characteristics as the panel may prioritize attributes that might not be deemed essential in wines produced in other regions. Our findings can help the wine industry better understand what drives consumer wine purchase decisions and offer insight into perceptions associated with brands and the marketing of discrete organoleptic profiles. Such information is of particular value in strategic planning and niche marketing. Further professional and critical evaluation of wines, by experts and consumers, is needed to assess the preferences and taste cultures in various other wine regions. The role of wine experts is essential in educating consumers to discern quality through unbiased perceptions of a wine's intrinsic sensory characteristics, as opposed to presuming quality based on a given brand or a high price point.