Evaluation of wine quality: comparison between sommelier approach and sensory analysis

Analytical sensory methods make it possible to relate the sensory characteristics of a product with its chemical profile, to explain its market performance and qualitative evaluation. These methods involve the use of different types of panels (trained or recruited) depending on the objective (Lawless and Heymann, 2010). The evaluation of Quality and Typicality of wines is practiced essentially through tasting by a group of experts such as producers, technicians, winemakers and sommeliers. The role of the sommelier is to evaluate the quality of the wine to associate it with the dishes and to acquire this title a preliminary training is required. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the adoption of two different methodological approaches, that of Sensory Analysis and that of Sommeliers, has an influence on the results in the evaluation of the typicality of a wine.