Are peppery notes the main negative driver of liking for young French consumers in a Duras red wine made from a cool and wet season?

It has been shown that rotundone, the only identified aroma compound imparting peppery notes in red wine, was neutrally or positively perceived by consumers, except for young non-anosmic respondents who disliked it. This work aimed to explore the main negative driver of liking for this target of consumers in a peppery Duras red wine from a cool and wet season and for which other penalties might apply. A convenience panel of one-hundred and thirty-four young French consumers from Ecole d’Ingénieurs de Purpan in Toulouse (18–24 years) was recruited for the study. Panellists were asked to rate their overall liking on a 9-point hedonic scale of such wine and their perception of seven sensory attributes on a 5-point just-about-right (JAR) scale, with 3 corresponding to the central just-about-right word anchor. Results from penalty analysis demonstrated that a lack of fruity notes followed by an excessive sourness and an excessive intensity of peppery notes were the main penalising sensory characteristics. The findings, that are still preliminary and would deserve to be confirmed using a panel composed of young consumers with other social and cultural background, highlight that the intensity of peppery notes was not the main negative driver of young consumers’ liking of Duras wine produced during a vintage year with unfavourable cool and rainy climate conditions. However, the results of this study encourage Duras producers targeting such consumers to propose a wine exhibiting a good balance between fruity and peppery notes and a moderate acidity level that could be achieved during such season through deacidification. This research is a good illustration of the fact that the penalty analysis method can be implemented on a single wine sample.