Aroma & Flavor Symposium

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Research in wine flavor chemistry and its related perceptual sciences is essential to providing distinctive wines. Each symposium speaker will describe recent research and how it might apply to wine. The features that distinguish wine for consumers are the perceptions of chemicals in the bottle. Understanding the science of these perceptions is essential if more wine products are to satisfy consumer desires and to command higher prices. Wines have been economically sustainable for centuries because the value of wine lies in its unimaginably diverse flavor chemistry.

During the last 10 years there have been amazing advances in the neurobiology of chemical perception. In this symposium discussion will include the neurobiology of taste and smell, the multi-sensory perception of flavor and the viticultural and enological processes that modulate flavor chemicals in wine.

There will be two tastings to highlight some of the points from the session and to provide a stimulus for discussion. The symposium will foster increased recognition of the importance of the flavor sciences to the production and enjoyment of wine.

Co-Chairs

Terry Acree, Cornell University, NY
Susan Ebeler, University of California, Davis