The influences of terroir and winery practices on the sensory character of Merlot wines produced in the Okanagan and Similkameen valleys in British Columbia were evaluated in four vintage years: 2004, 2005, 2012, and 2013. The wines were produced from grapes grown in six regions that differ in climate, soil, and topographic characteristics. Two to nine single-vineyard wines per region were acquired from commercial wineries each year. Wineries that provided more than one wine had sourced the fruit for each wine from a different region. Sensory quality of the wines was characterized ~20 months after the wines were made. The wines were blindly tasted by 31 judges who each tasted 10 wines twice in a balanced incomplete block design. The intensity of nine aroma and nine flavor and mouthfeel characteristics were rated. These included floral, fruit, vegetative, and herbaceous flavors and aromas, tannin roughness, body, and length of aftertaste. The sensory characteristics that distinguished the wines of each region and each winery that provided multiple wines were identified by discriminant function analysis. Although regional and winery characteristics differed among vintage years, some consistencies were found. Wine sensory characteristics were acquired from both terroir and winery influences in each vintage year.

Funding Support: BC Wine Grape Council, BC Wine Institute Agriculture, Agri-Food Canada