Are specific PDO wines sensorially recognisable? A study in the Beaujolais vineyard with different types of experts

Wine PDOs are based on their place of origin and technical product specifications. Some studies have looked at sensory differences between PDOs, but few have shown real sensory specificities for each PDO. These studies have focused on well-established PDOs, leaving aside the new appellations developed in recent years. This article investigates experts’ sensory representation (study 1) and actual descriptions of wines in blind and informed tastings (study 2). To achieve this objective, we used the Beaujolais vineyard as a case study and, more specifically, the new Beaujolais Pierres Dorées PDO. Three groups of experts were recruited and separated according to their professions: Makers, Sellers, and Critics. The results showed that the new Beaujolais Pierres Dorées PDO did not present a specific sensory description, neither in the mental representations of the experts nor during the tasting. Providing information on the PDO of the wine samples did not lead to different descriptions compared to blind tasting. However, wines from the same appellation were described more similarly in the informed tasting than in the blind one, suggesting some assimilation or contrast effects. No effect of the type of experts was observed during the tasting. However, experts store different wine attributes in memory depending on their experience and practice. The Makers stored very precise descriptions, the Sellers a few punchline descriptors, and the Critics were situated between the other two groups with both punchline descriptors and satellite descriptors.