PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Jun Niimi AU - Paul K. Boss AU - David W. Jeffery AU - Susan E.P. Bastian TI - Linking the Sensory Properties of Grape Berries with Wines for <em>Vitis vinifera</em> cv. Chardonnay AID - 10.5344/ajev.2017.17083 DP - 2017 Dec 15 TA - American Journal of Enology and Viticulture PG - ajev.2017.17083 4099 - http://www.ajevonline.org/content/early/2017/12/13/ajev.2017.17083.short 4100 - http://www.ajevonline.org/content/early/2017/12/13/ajev.2017.17083.full AB - Sensory analysis of grapes, be it formal or informal, is often used to determine when a parcel of fruit should be harvested to produce a certain wine style. This study tested whether relationships existed between sensory perceptions and basic chemical measures of Chardonnay grape berries and the corresponding wines. Chardonnay grape parcels were harvested at commercial maturity from across South Australia in vintages 2015 and 2016, with a total of 25 and 24 samples, respectively. Grapes were evaluated using berry sensory assessment (BSA) or vinified identically using small-scale wine making and wines subsequently evaluated with descriptive sensory analysis. All assessors were trained in the respective sensory evaluation methods (n = 9 – 11). Chardonnay grape and wine samples were discriminated based on sensory attributes by the panel and the fruit could also be discriminated by basic chemistry measures. However, differences in Chardonnay wines were subtle compared to those in grapes, as supported by the low effect sizes. Moderate validation models (R2Val = 0.53 – 0.81) of partial least squares regression (PLSR) 1 were determined in the 2015 vintage using BSA attributes as X variables and wine sensory attributes as Y variables, but poor models were obtained with the 2016 vintage (R2Val &gt; 0.5). In the 2015 models, relationships were found for wine attributes of heat, sourness, and astringency to slight variations in ripeness. Strong relationships that revealed wine style from variations in grapes were not found. Overall, relating the sensory characteristics of Chardonnay grapes to the wines was challenging and indicative that variation in style of these varietal wines is not greatly dependent on the raw grape material.