Perceptual interactions between fruity and woody notes of wine

The quantitative olfactory interactions in three binary mixtures of wine aroma compounds were studied. For the first two mixtures, whisky lactone (woody note) was mixed separately with two esters (fruity note), ethyl butyrate and isoamyl acetate. For the third mixture, guaiacol (woody note) was mixed with ethyl butyrate (fruity note). Perceived odour intensity of 24 stimuli (four supra-threshold concentration levels of two compounds and the respective 16 mixtures) were evaluated in five replications, by a trained panel of 13 subjects. The results showed that for the three binary mixtures studied, quantitative perceptual interactions were non-level independent, non-symmetrical, and reached the compromise level of hypo-addition. The experimental data highlighted that generally mixtures with high whisky lactone levels led to the compromise level of mixture intensity perception, whereas mixtures with high fruity note intensity proportions did not. A tendency to hyper-addition was observed in iso-intense mixtures only at the lowest intensity level. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.