The role of má-là flavor in contributing desirable oral perceptions during wine drinking: The seeking of sensory harmony between grape wines and sichuan cuisines in a physiochemical perspective

China nowadays has achieved a great success in popularizing grape wine drinking in different regions. However, there are no clear wine and Chinese food paring guides that have been proposed compared with the fully developed wine-food pairing theory in the Western society, which definitely limits the enjoyment of wines on the Chinese dining-table. The Sichuan cuisine flavor is recognized as the most representative Chinese cuisine flavor worldwide. In this review, the typical flavor, Má-Là, in Sichuan cuisines is used as an example to explore possible interactions among flavor molecules within wines and Sichuan cuisines in the mouth and to discuss potential influences on the overall oral flavor perception when enjoy wines and Sichuan cuisines. The context of this review is divided into four parts. The first part presents general categorizations of famous Chinese cuisines and their regional distributions and flavor characters. The second part introduces the Má-Là flavor in Sichuan cuisines, including flavor descriptions and resources, influential chemical components, and sensory functioning mechanisms. The third part focuses on explaining effects of wine components on modifying the oral environment. Finally, potential consequences on the interactive oral sensory perceptions between wines and Sichuan cuisines are proposed. According to our knowledge, this is the first review that illustrates flavor interactions of wines and typical Chinese cuisines, which provides readers better understandings either of paring wines and cuisines, or of developing novel specific wine/cuisine products that offer ideal flavor experiences to consumers during the wine-food consumption.