Sensory drivers of intrinsic quality of red wines: Effect of culture and level of expertise

- Intrinsic quality perception is dependent on the level of expertise of consumers.
- The experts from both regions have aligned intrinsic quality concepts.
- Regular consumers from both regions have aligned intrinsic quality concepts.
- For consumers quality is linked to woody aromas and for experts to red fruity aromas.
- Wine intrinsic quality for regular consumers is related to wine exposure.

The present study aims at evaluating the effect of culture and level of expertise on the perception of wine intrinsic quality. Therefore, regular consumers (108) and experts (119) from La Rioja (RJ-Spain) and Côtes du Rhône (CdR-France) evaluated the intrinsic quality of 12 red wines from both regions. Participants had to categorise the wines according to four levels of quality going from very low to very high quality.Results show no significant correlation between the quality scores given by experts and regular consumers whereas judgments given by French and Spanish experts are significantly correlated as are consumers' quality judgments. This demonstrates that perceived intrinsic quality is dependent on consumers' level of expertise. Consumers associate quality exemplars to woody-related aromas and experts to red fruity aromas. Animal and vegetal attributes are negatively correlated to wine quality, regardless of consumer's culture and level of expertise, while astringency negatively influences quality evaluated by Spanish consumers.It is also observed that Spanish consumers (who report to drink mostly RJ wines) find domestic wines (RJ) of higher quality than foreign wines (CdR). However, French consumers (who drink RJ and CdR with the same frequency) do not differentiate foreign and domestic wines in terms of intrinsic quality. This suggests that intrinsic quality perceived by both groups of regular wine consumers is related to consumers' exposure to wine, and thus to wine familiarity.