Descriptive Analysis of Three White Wine Varieties from Penedès

¹ Area de Nutrición y Bromatologia, Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad de Barcelona, Spain
² Dept. Viticulture & Enology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616.

Spanish white wines from the Penedès area in Catalonia were evaluated by descriptive analysis by 17 trained judges. Eight aroma terms differed significantly across wines and were used for principal component analysis. The first principal component (PC) contrasted wines high in floral, citrus, and black pepper aromas with those high in nutty aroma. The second PC separated wines higher in tropical fruit and caramel versus those with greater intensity of shoe polish (anise) and bell pepper descriptors. Macabeo wines were characterized by higher intensity of nutty and shoe polish attributes, while Xarel.lo wines were highest in tropical fruit, black pepper and floral and Parellada wines were higher in intensity of citrus aroma. By discriminant analysis, the wines could be correctly classified by variety using only the shoe polish and floral terms.

Key words: Macabeo, Xarel.lo, Parellada, sensory analysis, wine aroma

Submitted on February 23, 1994