Project title
Investigating the correlation between chemical, sensory and consumer preferences of selected South African wines: Implementation of novel software

Project leader
Nieuwoudt, HH

Institution
University of Stellenbosch. Institute for Wine Biotechnology.

Team members
Naes, T
Tredoux, A
Muller, N
Silva Ferreira, A
Flaatten, A
Jumat, H

Project description
Previous wine flavour research on South African table wines has resulted in significant growth in knowledge of the chemistry of aroma compounds and the effects of viticultural and oenological practices on them. However, the important link between chemical-, sensory- and consumer preference data is usually not established for most wine products. The results are that the direct economic benefit of chemical and sensory information remains unexploited, and the producing cellar also does not gain the necessary control over directed product development. Partly contributing to this problem is that the results obtained with traditional consumer research methodologies, frequently do not predict consumer behaviour that well. This scenario is also true for wine products.
The ultimate aim of this project is to expand the chemical database of SA table wines and to link the chemical information to sensory characteristics and consumer acceptance and liking of mainly Chenin blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon table wine. The objectives of the project are four-fold: (i) to expand the existing aroma database of SA table wines and to include flavour and health-related chemical compounds; (ii) to develop new methods for gaining insight into what aspects of a wine product and its promotion consumers use to make their wine purchase decision; (iii) to assist the development of new statistical and chemometric methods necessary to do this investigations, and (iv) to assist transfer of the new methods developed in this project from research to industry for customised consumer research by SA wine cellars.
This project describes the developmental phase where datasets on SA table wine that contain comprehensive information on chemical composition, sensory characteristics and consumers? drivers of liking and purchase intention, are generated, and used to develop the statistical and chemometric techniques needed for this new holistic approach to consumer research. The challenge of statistical method development is currently a focus point in consumer-related research in international food and wine industries.
The proposal forms part of the four-year international ConsumerCheck project of Nofima Food (previously Matforsk Norwegian Food Research Institute) Norway that started on 1st July 2009. The project is supported by the Norwegian National Research Foundation and the research partnership consists of Nofima, the Danish Technical University, Denmark, Stellenbosch University, South Africa (Institute for Wine Biotechnology and Department of Food Science) and Food Science Australia. The international programme leader is Tormod Nęs, Professor at the Agricultural University of Norway and Principal Research Scientist, Nofima. Norway. The main objective of the international project is the development of suitable skills and practical tools for identifying consumers? drivers for liking of foodstuffs. Logic8 from the Netherlands will act as the provider for data collection software to each of the four national projects. Nofima will act as an active discussion partner at regular project meetings. The benefit to the SA researchers and their industrial partners is access to a team of experts who will assist in experimental design, sensory and consumer profiling and data analysis and interpretation.

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