Assessing ultrapremium red wine quality using PLS-SEM

Very few studies have evaluated the categorization of ultra-premium wine. Thus, determination of key factors defining its quality has become imperative. The primary aim of this study was to investigate wine attributes that contribute to professional wine quality perception in the ultra-premium red wine category. This was done by analyzing Spanish DO wines and weighing the influence of the ortho-nasal and in-mouth attributes. The first focus of the research was intended to select representative wines from an initial preselection. The wines were sensory characterized by binary response using a Check-All-That-Applied questionnaire. The results led to the categorization of the wines into seven groups and a representative wine of each group was selected. The wines were evaluated for 13 aroma, 3 taste and 19 mouthfeel attributes as well as overall quality perception using Rate-All-That-Apply. The PLS-SEM analysis relates quality scores to sensory attributes of wines. From the PLS-SEM analysis, Spanish ultra-premium red wines that were considered higher in quality were rated higher in mouthcoating, red/black fruits, spicy, and coffee aromas and lower in leather, dusty, burning and watery. No taste attributes significantly contributed to wine quality. Mouthfeel terms were 1.37 times more important than aroma attributes in the construction of quality.This research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), (projects AGL2014-59840-C2-2 R & AGL2017-87373-C3-3 R) and by the University of La Rioja and the Regional Government of La Rioja SYL pre-doctoral fellowship (FPU-2018)