PROP taste status has limited impact on wine flavour perception and acceptability by consumers

Abstract

Individual differences in the perception of oral and retro-olfactive stimuli can affect wine consumer’s preference. The aim of this work was to understand how individual variation in PROP taste status (PTS) (response to 6-n-propylthiouracil) affects the perceived intensity of oral (acid, sweet, bitter, astringency) and retro-olfactive sensory stimuli (fruity and woody aromas) and liking. The correlation between PROP responsiveness and the intensity of basic tastes using impregnated strips and with saliva composition, was also assessed. A cohort of wine consumers (n = 279) segmented by age-gender (being 45 y.o. the cut-off point for young/adult) and characterized by their PTS, tested six white and six red wines (WW, RW) modified with chemical compounds to elicit a predominant sensory stimulus. Results from comparing supertasters (STs) and no tasters (NTs) consumers showed a positive correlation (p < 0.05) between the perception of most basic tastes (acid, bitter, salty) and PROP responsiveness. However, salivary flow rate and total proteins did not show significant differences depending on PTS. The relationship of PTS with perceived intensity and acceptability was also rather low when evaluating the wines. Only the intensity scores of some sensory stimuli (woody aroma, astringency, sweet taste) showed a trend (p < 0.10). Young STs scored with higher intensity the woody aroma (females) and the sweet taste (males) of RW. NTs young-males and adult-females perceived with higher intensity the astringency and woody aroma of WW respectively. The effect of PTS on wine liking was also limited to some specific sensory attributes (sweet, astringent, fruity) mainly in white wines.