The Wine Scholar Guild (WSG) has unveiled a new way to assess wine that takes a deep dive into “personality,” and “terroir signature” of wine using sensory language and neuroscience.
The WSG initiative, entitled The Architecture of Taste Research Project (ATRP), involves non-traditional methods of assessment including universal criteria such as sensory perception, perceived energy and emotions to evaluate wine.
The Project Leader Julien Camus and his team took into account how language formats individual thought and collective culture and noted how olfactory notes may speak more about the genetic background, the experience and the culture of a person applying them than about a specific molecule within the wine itself.
“We need to pay more attention to the global intuitive signals our bodies give us. If we put our sole focus on wine’s structural components, we may miss the bigger message,” said WSG president, founder, and leader of the Architecture of Taste research project Julien Camus.
“Our current research is very encouraging. When using our assessment grid, certain sets of descriptors correspond to certain terroirs. There are patterns that are statistically significant,” added Camus.
The oenological research’s next phase of the study will involve sensory analysis experiments, blind-panel tastings, statistical analyses, and an expanded set of assessment criteria to encompass salinity, bitterness, umami and minerality – each within the context of how the body responds to stimuli.
The WSG has put together a multi-disciplinary, advisory committee of professionals to oversee the ATRP. Members of the committee include: Gabriel Lepousez, neuroscientist; Benoît Marsan, wine chemist; Marc-André Selosse, botanist and mycologist; Thibault Boulay, historian and vigneron; Clémence Corbière, historian and sommelière; Pascaline Lepeltier MOF, restaurateur and wine writer; Andrew Jefford, journalist and author; and Lisa M. Airey, CWE, wine educator.
The first large-scale panel tasting using the WSG’s new ATRP tasting grid will take place in Alsace sometime this month (September 2021).
#wine #winenews #instawine #winetasting #winescholarguild #wineeducation #WSG #ArchitectureofTaste #terroir #winedescriptions #olfactory #blindtasting #winelovers
Chianti Classico Collection in 2021 becomes “Chianti Classico Connection”
The “Collection”, this year, was entitled “CC” (Chianti Classico) “Connection”. This global event is synchronized in 5 different countries, including multiple days at the end of May for Chicago, Florence, London and New York and the end of June was reserved for Munich, and Tokyo. In these six important cities, the Black Rooster presented a hybrid format combining an in-person tasting for the sector’s professionals and online interaction with the producers. The Consortium gathered a selected international audience from the wine sector, with the attendance being over 2,800 experts and members of the press, 400 wines being presented with10,000 bottles being tasted.
Chianti Classico Moving Forward
Gran Selezione Regulation Switches Toward Sangiovese
Chianti Classico Passport
Chianti Classico is offered in three different types that represent its qualitative pyramid:
Having spent only one day at Chianti Classico Collection, I have reviewed 162 wines, from Annata Chianti Classico 2019 and 2018, as well as Riserva and Gran Selezione 2018 categories. The Chianti Classico 2019 Annata showed beautiful lively-colored, ripe fruit with great aromatic intensity. An appropriate level of natural acidity guarantees good fragrance. The vast majority of wines I tasted were graceful with slightly lower alcohol content than average previous vintages. The Chianti Classico 2018 Annata, in general, turned out to be soft, fruity with good structure and balance. This is partly a reflection of the vintage which started cool and continued quite rainy through the summer, ending with nice weather during harvest. I found a wide range of great wines, showing high intensity and complexity of aromas in the Riserva and Gran Selezione 2018 categories.
