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• Review Article
• Published: 26 March 2024

Climate change impacts and adaptations of wine production

• Cornelis van Leeuwen   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9428-0167 1 ,
• Giovanni Sgubin 2 , 3 ,
• Benjamin Bois   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7114-2071 4 ,
• Nathalie Ollat 1 ,
• Didier Swingedouw   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0583-0850 2 ,
• Sébastien Zito 1 &
• Gregory A. Gambetta   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8838-5050 1  

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume  5 ,  pages 258–275 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Climate change
• Environmental impact

Climate change is affecting grape yield, composition and wine quality. As a result, the geography of wine production is changing. In this Review, we discuss the consequences of changing temperature, precipitation, humidity, radiation and CO 2 on global wine production and explore adaptation strategies. Current winegrowing regions are primarily located at mid-latitudes (California, USA; southern France; northern Spain and Italy; Barossa, Australia; Stellenbosch, South Africa; and Mendoza, Argentina, among others), where the climate is warm enough to allow grape ripening, but without excessive heat, and relatively dry to avoid strong disease pressure. About 90% of traditional wine regions in coastal and lowland regions of Spain, Italy, Greece and southern California could be at risk of disappearing by the end of the century because of excessive drought and more frequent heatwaves with climate change. Warmer temperatures might increase suitability for other regions (Washington State, Oregon, Tasmania, northern France) and are driving the emergence of new wine regions, like the southern United Kingdom. The degree of these changes in suitability strongly depends on the level of temperature rise. Existing producers can adapt to a certain level of warming by changing plant material (varieties and rootstocks), training systems and vineyard management. However, these adaptations might not be enough to maintain economically viable wine production in all areas. Future research should aim to assess the economic impact of climate change adaptation strategies applied at large scale.

Climate change modifies wine production conditions and requires adaptation from growers.

The suitability of current winegrowing areas is changing, and there will be winners and losers. New winegrowing regions will appear in previously unsuitable areas, including expanding into upslope regions and natural areas, raising issues for environmental preservation.

Higher temperatures advance phenology (major stages in the growing cycle), shifting grape ripening to a warmer part of the summer. In most winegrowing regions around the globe, grape harvests have advanced by 2–3 weeks over the past 40 years. The resulting modifications in grape composition at harvest change wine quality and style.

Changing plant material and cultivation techniques that retard maturity are effective adaptation strategies to higher temperatures until a certain level of warming.

Increased drought reduces yield and can result in sustainability losses. The use of drought-resistant plant material and the adoption of different training systems are effective adaptation strategies to deal with declining water availability. Supplementary irrigation is also an option when sustainable freshwater resources are available.

The emergence of new pests and diseases and the increasing occurrence of extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, heavy rainfall and possibly hail, also challenge wine production in some regions. In contrast, other areas might benefit from reduced pest and disease pressure.

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Data availability.

The suitability assessment compiled in Fig.  1 can be obtained by applying, for each region identified in Supplementary Table  1 , the methodology explained in the Supplementary note and in Supplementary Tables  3 , 4 and 5 , for each specific reference selected in Supplementary Table  2 .

The data underlying Fig.  3 are freely available, for the observed precipitations at http://gpcp.umd.edu/ and for drought projections at https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/1b91153925dd474387bb696d59adbd15 .

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Acknowledgements

B.B. and S.Z. thank P. Louâpre and M. Adrian for help with Fig.  6 . D.S., C.v.L., G.G. and G.S. acknowledge the financial support of the RRI ‘Tackling Global Change’ funded by the University of Bordeaux and Jas Hennessy.

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van Leeuwen, C., Sgubin, G., Bois, B. et al. Climate change impacts and adaptations of wine production. Nat Rev Earth Environ 5 , 258–275 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-024-00521-5

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Basic cognitive research can help to explain our response to wine, and the myriad factors that affect it. Wine is a complex, culture-laden, multisensory stimulus, and our perception/experience of its properties is influenced by everything from the packaging in which it is presented through the glassware in which it is served and evaluated. A growing body of experiential wine research now demonstrates that a number of contextual factors, including everything from the colour of the ambient lighting through to background music can exert a profound, and in some cases predictable, influence over the tasting experience. Sonic seasoning - that is, the matching of music or soundscapes with specific wines in order to accentuate or draw attention to certain qualities/attributes in the wine, such as sweetness, length, or body, also represents a rapidly growing area of empirical study. While such multisensory, experiential wine research undoubtedly has a number of practical applications, it also provides insights concerning multisensory perception that are relevant to basic scientists. Furthermore, the findings of the wine research are also often relevant to those marketers interested in understanding how the consumers’ perception of any other food or beverage product can potentially be modified.

Significance statement

This review paper highlights how basic cognitive research can help understand, and thereafter modify the way in which people respond to wine. There is far more research on the influence of cognitive/perceptual factors on the purchasing and the subsequent tasting experience in the world of wine than for any other food or beverage product. Hence, understanding what research has already been conducted to influence the perception of the wine itself, and the wine-drinking experience more generally, typically provides an excellent starting point as far as considering how our perception/experience of any other food or beverage product might potentially be modified as well. The review highlights a number of examples of how use-inspired basic research has already provided insights and opportunities that have been taken up by those making and/or marketing wine (e.g., in terms of the design of cellar-door experiences, multisensory experiential wine-tasting events, not to mention wine labels). For instance, over recent decades there has been a great deal of research into the importance of and expectations set by the colour of wine. Bottles, labels, brands, and glassware for wine have also been widely studied by both marketers and sensory scientists. The last decade or two has also seen something of an explosion of interest in the way that people match music with wine, and how listening to the former can transform the wine taster’s experience of the latter. Wine is an especially intriguing product to work with given its complexity and constant evolution. Ultimately, though, this can also make working with wine more challenging than with other food and beverage products.

Introduction

Traditionally and understandably, research in the world of wine has tended to focus on oenology, viticulture, and wine sensory analysis (e.g., Amerine & Roessler, 1976 ; Goode, 2005 , 2016 ; Peynaud, 1984 , 1987 ; Zoecklein, Fugelsang, Gump, & Nury, 1995 ). As such, there has perhaps been little of relevance to the readership of a journal such as Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications ( CRPI ). There has, though, in recent decades been something of an explosion of interest in what might be termed “wine psychology”. The emerging body of research has led to a growing awareness of just how much a wide variety of cognitive and perceptual factors, what Rozin ( 2006 ) calls processes or entities (such as learning, sensation, attention, and memory) influence the wine-drinking experience, both in wine experts and regular consumers alike. The perception of wine itself and the wine-tasting experience more generally have been shown to be influenced by everything from the weight of the wine bottle through to the sound made by its closure and the glass from which it is drunk, to the wine’s visual appearance and the multisensory environment/atmosphere in which it happens to be consumed. Researchers working in a diverse range of disciplines from marketing to sensory science, and from cognitive neuroscience to packaging design and economics have started to become increasingly interested in the consumer’s response to wine, be it in terms of the latter’s purchase behaviour or their perceptual response on tasting a wine.

There is undoubtedly a great deal of psychology in the world of wine appreciation not to mention wine choice (e.g., Batt & Dean, 2000 ; Beverland, 2006 ; Bruwer, Chrysochou, & Lesschaeve, 2017 ; Edwards & Spawton, 1998 ; Escobar, Kallas, & Gil, 2018 ; Horska, Bercik, Krasnodebski, Matysik-Pejas, & Bakayova, 2016 ; Hughson, 2008 ; Mitchell & Mitchell, 2009 ). Wine writers (Goode, 2007 ; Smith, 2017 ) and cognitive neuroscientists (Shepherd, 2015 , 2017 ) have been interested in trying to uncover the various brain areas/networks involved in wine appreciation. Indeed, according to eminent North American neuroenologist Gordon Shepherd, drinking wine “engages more of our brain than any other human behaviour” (as quoted in Hoyle, 2017 ). To date, the majority of the neuroimaging research has tended to focus on how the brain response changes as a result of increasing wine expertise (e.g., Banks et al., 2016 ; Castriota-Scanderbeg et al., 2005 ; Pazart, Comte, Magnin, Millot, & Moulin, 2014 ). Meanwhile, a separate fruitful line of neuroimaging research has looked at the effects of pricing/branding information on the brain’s response to wine in regions such as the orbitofrontal cortex (Alvino, van der Lubbe, Joosten, & Constantinides, in press ; Plassmann, O’Doherty, Shiv, & Rangel, 2008 ; Plassmann & Weber, 2015 ; Schmidt, Skvortsova, Kullen, Weber, & Plassmann, 2017 ).

Of all the food and beverage products that could potentially be studied, it is wine that has received by far the most research interest over the last half century or so. In fact, no matter whether one is talking about the impact of colour, glassware, packaging, branding, label design, closure type, pricing, or perceptual expertise, there is just so much more research in the world of wine than in any of the world’s other more popular drinks such as, for example, coffee, tea, beer, or water (e.g., Charters & Pettigrew, 2003 , 2005 ; D’Alessandro & Pecotish, 2013 ; Goldstein et al., 2008 ; Kidd, 1999 ; Lange, Martin, Chabanet, Combris, & Issanchou, 2002 ; Lecocq, Visser, Lecocq, & Visser, 2006 ; Lockshin, Jarvis, d’Hauteville, & Perrouty, 2006 ; Mitchell & Greatorex, 1989 ; Puyares, Ares, & Carrau, 2010 ; Siegrist & Cousin, 2009 ; Spence, 2019c ; Spence & Wang, 2019 ; Tootelain & Ross, 2000 ; Verdú Jover, Llorens Montes, Fuentes, & M. del M., 2004 ; Vollherbst & Urben, 2011 ; Wansink, Payne, & North, 2007 ; see Spence, 2010c , 2014b , for reviews).

Researchers have also used wine to address questions related to local versus global information processing (Lewis, Seeley, & Miles, 2009 ) and verbal overshadowing (Melcher & Schooler, 1996 ). One of the questions that will be returned to later concerns the extent to which findings, principles, and cognitive mechanisms implicated in our relationship to wine also explain our responses to other food and drink products. As I argue later, while there are a large number of similarities there are also a few important differences.

Ultimately, I will also return to the question of what implications the study of wine psychology may have for the basic researcher interested in multisensory perception. The research outlined here is organized around one particular domain of lived everyday experience. At this point, it is perhaps worth drawing attention to a 2006 article in which Paul Rozin highlights the importance of domain-based psychology (i.e., research that is based on studying domains of everyday experience such as eating, driving, and working), rather than the dominant approach within the field of experimental psychology that is organized in terms of specific processes, or mental entities, such as learning, sensation, attention, or memory (Rozin, 2006 ). Rozin stresses both the contemporary neglect of domains of experience in applied psychology, but also its importance in terms of understanding our lived mental life - what he refers to as “domain denigration and process preference”.

The context, or atmosphere, in which a wine happens to be consumed also turns out to have a profound effect on the tasting experience, as acknowledged by discussion of the Provencal rosé paradox (e.g., Gregory, 2007 ; Smith, B. C. (2009). The emotional impact of a wine and the Provencal rose paradox. Unpublished manuscript; Spence, 2017a ; Spence & Piqueras-Fiszman, 2014 ). The latter name given to the common experience that a wine that tastes delightful while on holiday often tastes very different, and is much less enjoyable, when sampled at home after one’s return. In recent years, many people have also become interested in the crossmodal correspondences that exist between wine and music, and how they can be leveraged to enhance the wine-drinking experience of regular consumers (see Spence, 2019b ; Spence & Wang, 2015a , 2015b , 2015c , for reviews). The latter, an area of research falling under the name of “sonic seasoning” (Spence, 2017b ), or, more particularly, when it deals with wine, “oenosthesia” (see Burzynska, 2018 ).

On the importance of the visual appearance of wine

That colour influences aroma, taste, and flavour has long been known in the world of wine (Pokorný, Filipů, & Pudil, 1998 ; see Spence, 2010a , 2010b , for reviews). However, what has taken many people by surprise is just how easy it is to fool even the wine experts simply by deliberately miscolouring a wine (e.g., see Pangborn, Berg, & Hansen, 1963 , for early work, and Morrot, Brochet, & Dubourdieu, 2001 ; Parr, White, & Heatherbell, 2003 ; Wang & Spence, 2019a , for more recent research). In what is by far the largest, if by no means the first, study of its kind, Wang and Spence presented 168 individuals with a white wine, a rosé wine, and a white wine that had been artificially coloured with an odourless, tasteless food dye to look exactly like the rosé wine. The participants (including 22 beginners, defined as “I drink socially but don't know much about wine”, 62 intermediates, defined as “I know which wines I like and have been to some classes”, 79 experts, defined as “I work in the wine trade and/or have 5+ years experience tasting wine formally”, and 5 not declared) were provided with an extensive list of possible wine-relevant flavour descriptors to choose from and had to provide three aroma and flavour descriptors to best describe each of the three wines. The participants were also instructed to rate their liking of the wine, the flavour intensity, and how difficult they found it to pick relevant descriptors for each wine. The participants were not informed of the visual deception.

Linguistic analysis of the results demonstrated that those participants with wine-tasting experience judged the fake rosé wine to be much more similar to the rosé wine than to the white wine, even though the fake rosé and the white wine were, in fact, one and the same. Moreover, red fruit descriptors were attributed to both rosé wines, especially in terms of flavour descriptors. Quantitative ratings revealed that the fake rosé wine was liked less than either of the authentic wines, and the participants found it more difficult to describe the fake than the authentic rosé wine. These results therefore demonstrate that while participants found the fake rosé somehow different from the two unadulterated wines, they nevertheless used the red fruit terms to describe its aroma and flavour. What is more, and as has been noted previously (see Parr et al., 2003 ), the experienced tasters appeared to be more influenced by colour than the non-expert participants. This is presumably because the subtle gradations of colour in wine have more meaning, and hence set more specific flavour expectations, for experts than for the beginners (i.e., the novice, or social wine drinkers). After all, the latter may only really meaningfully discriminate between broad categories including red, white, rosé, and, these days, possibly also orange wines (see also Manescu et al., 2018 ). Footnote 1

There is a much richer range of colours in the world of wine than is the case for perhaps any other class of beverage (see Spence, 2010b ). Furthermore, wine experts are trained to carefully assess the colour of a wine first when tasting (see Amerine & Roessler, 1976 ; Gawel, 1997 ; Jackson, Timberlake, Bridle, & Vallis, 1978 ; Spence, 2014a ; see also Coulon-Leroy, Pouzalgues, Cayla, Symoneaux, & Masson, 2018 ). Research from Ballester, Abdi, Langlois, Peyron, and Valentin ( 2009 ) has shown that wine experts can correctly group red and white wines on the basis of their aroma when served in black tasting glasses (to obscure any visual cues). However, they struggle when it comes to categorizing rosé wines correctly (see also Valentin, Parr, Peyron, Grose, & Ballester, 2016 ).

The clarity/limpidity is another important aspect of a wine’s visual appearance. However, to date, this has attracted far less research interest (though see Barnett, Juravle, & Spence, 2017 , for equivalent research from the world of beer). Experienced wine tasters tend to focus on the colour, intensity, and clarity of a wine when evaluating its visual appearance. The famous French oenologist, Emile Peynaud ( 1987 ), p. 31, talks of a wine’s limpidity (dullness, brilliance) and colour (intensity and shade). The intensity of a wine’s appearance is described in terms of simple adjectives such as pale, light, and weak at one end of the spectrum through to deep, dark, and intense at the other. To the knowledgeable wine taster, intensity can indicate climatic conditions - with warmer years and warmer regions producing wines with deeper intensity; age - white wines pick up a deeper colour as they age, whereas red wines tend to go paler; and grape variety - where thicker-skinned red grapes tend to produce wines with a deeper colour (see Schuster, 2002 ). The shade of colour in a glass of wine can itself also play a role. For instance, a bright slightly-blueish tint in a red wine might indicate its youthfulness, whereas mature reds tend to take on garnet and tawny hues (Fielden, 2009 ; Spence, 2010b ).

Finally, here, while changing the colour of the wine may well have the largest influence on the tasting experience, as we will see later, everything from the colour of the wine label (Lick, König, Kpossa, & Buller, 2017 ; and see Barnett & Spence, 2016 ; Sugrue & Dando, 2018 , for similar results from the worlds of beer and cider, respectively) through to the colour of the wine glass itself (Williams, Langren, & Noble, 1984 ; Williams, Langren, Timberlake, & Bakker, 1984 ), or even the colour of the environment in which a wine is evaluated (Spence, Velasco, & Knoeferle, 2014 ) has now been shown to bias people’s wine expectations/judgements.

Interim summary: applied research that has highlighted the importance of colour to wine appreciation is of relevance to the basic researcher inasmuch as it provides additional support for colour-in-context theory (e.g., Elliot & Maier, 2012 ). What is more, wine expertise also appears to result in a greater visual dominance, or biasing, of perception. This result, then, contrasts with other areas of multisensory perception research, such as those older studies of potters, where expertise was shown not to impact the patterns of visual dominance that were observed in a visual-tactile shape task (Power & Graham, 1976 ; though see also Shankar, Simons, Shiv, McClure, & Spence, 2010 ). One other important point that is emphasized by the research around wine colour concerns just how much prediction (call it crossmodal mental imagery or expectation) occurs prior to tasting, based in the wine expert at least, on very subtle variations of hue and clarity/limpidity (e.g., Piqueras-Fiszman & Spence, 2015 ; Shankar, Levitan, & Spence, 2010 ; Spence & Wang, 2018a ).

Complexity, perceptual learning, and the perils of blind wine-tasting

The results of a number of studies conducted over the last couple of decades or so have demonstrated that even wine experts are unable to correctly judge many of the attributes of wines that wine writing would suggest that they ought to be able to discern from the chemosensory properties of the wine itself, i.e., when tasted blind (e.g., Harrar, Smith, Deroy, & Spence, 2013 ; Smith, 2008 ; Weil, 2005 , 2007 ; Weinberg, 2008 ; see Spence, 2010c , for a review). For instance, Harrar et al. conducted research with 15 tasters, comprising 4 experts, 6 intermediates, and 5 novice champagne tasters, in which seven sparkling wines were presented blind. The participants were only informed that the sparkling wines (6 champagnes and one English sparkling wine) could potentially span the full range from 0 to 100% Chardonnay white grapes but were otherwise given no information about the wines that they were tasting. Furthermore, all visual cues were also obscured by presenting the sparkling wines in opaque black tasting glasses.

The tasters were instructed to try and estimate the proportion of white grapes in each of the wines while also rating their hedonic response. The wines varied from a 100% Blanc de blancs (made with 100% white Chardonnay grapes) through to a 100% Blanc de noirs (made with 100% red Pinot noir and/or Pinot Meunier grapes). In fact, the percentage of white grapes in the sparkling wines was varied systematically, with the wines included in the study made from 0%, 22%, 30%, 45%, 58%, or 100% Chardonnay grapes. None of the participants in Harrar et al.’s ( 2013 ) study were able to correctly judge the percentage of white grapes in the wines (cf. Ballester et al., 2009 ). What is more, the tasters’ hedonic ratings of the wines were not correlated with the price of the sparkling wines either, despite the fact that the wines varied from around £18 to an “eye-watering” £400 a bottle for the most expensive. Footnote 2

Elsewhere, Wang and Spence ( 2019b ) assessed whether tasters (41 novice, 30 intermediate, and 16 expert tasters by self-report) were able to detect the chemical complexity of wine by trying to identify the blends from a selection of six wines tasted blind (see Singleton & Ough, 1962 , for the original inspiration behind this particular study). The wines consisted of three single varietal wines (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc from the Dr Frank Winery, Finger Lakes, NY, USA) and the three possible 50–50 mixtures of each pair of single varietals. Note that the latter blends must presumably be more chemically complex than the single varietals (see Smith, 2014 ; Spence & Wang, 2018a , 2018b , Wang & Spence, 2018a , on the notion of complexity in the world of fine wine). Nevertheless, the results revealed that none of the three groups of tasters were able to distinguish the more chemically complex blends from the single varietals at a level that was significantly better than chance (see Campbell, Campbell, & Roberts, 1994 ; Chadwick & Dudley, 1983 ; and Smith, Sester, Ballester, & Deroy, 2017 , for a similar inability to discriminate single malt whiskies from their blended counterparts).

Given the many well-controlled failures to discriminate wines blind on the basis of their age, quality, or price (see Spence, 2010c , for a review), the question then becomes one of what exactly the wine expert learns when training (see Hughson, 2003 ; Hughson & Boakes, 2001 , 2002 , 2009 ). In a recent review of the literature on perceptual learning, Spence, 2019c ; see also Spence & Wang, 2019 ) there was little published evidence to support changes in sensory threshold accompanying wine expertise (Brand & Brisson, 2012 ; Parr, Heatherbell, & White, 2002 ). Rather, the changes that are observed are most apparent in an increased ability to name and categorize wine-relevant aromas (see also Ballester, Patris, Symoneaux, & Valentin, 2008 ; Brochet & Dubourdieu, 2001 ; Findlay, Castura, Schlich, & Lesschaeve, 2006 ; Gawel, 1997 ; Solomon, 1990 , 1991 , 1997 ; Wang, Frank, Houge, Spence, & LaTour, 2019 ; Wang & Prešern, 2018 ; Zucco, Carassai, Baroni, & Stevenson, 2011 ).

Interim summary: studies of perceptual learning in the world of wine suggest that the majority of the learning tends to be more conceptual/cognitive than specifically in terms of changes to sensory thresholds. In part, the reason for this may once again relate to the complexity of the underlying stimulus. Prior studies of perceptual learning in the higher spatial senses of vision, audition, and touch have revealed that the most pronounced perceptual changes are observed under those conditions in which only a single specific attribute of the stimulus is varied across learning trials (Dosher & Lu, 2017 ). This is hard to achieve in the world of wine given the complexity of this natural product and hence the complexity of the learning environment that it presents (Spence & Wang, 2019 ).

Wine marketing

There have been many studies of wine marketing in recent decades. There has been particular interest in both observing and trying to influence the behaviour of shoppers in the wine aisle (e.g., Thach, 2008 ). In one famous study, North, Hargreaves, and McKendrick ( 1997 , 1999 ) reported that shoppers in a UK supermarket bought significantly more French (than German) wine when French music was played, whereas they purchased more German wine on those days on which German music was played instead. What is more, of the 44 shoppers who agreed to be questioned after leaving the tills as to why they had chosen to purchase the wine that they had, only 6 shoppers thought that the music playing in the background had influenced their choice. However, while the results of this famous study have been frequently cited over the last 20 years, it is worth bearing in mind that the findings were based on what today can seem like a very small dataset. In fact, a total of only 82 bottles of wine were sold during the 2 weeks in which the study (first published in Nature ) was conducted (though see Hsu & Chen, in press , for a recent cognitive neuroscience study replicating the priming effect of musical genre on wine selection).

Elsewhere, it has been demonstrated that playing classical music rather than top-40 hits resulted in people spending significantly more money in a North American wine store (Areni & Kim, 1993 ). A follow-up study that was published the next year by the same pair of researchers (Areni & Kim, 1994 ) revealed that changing the type of music had a much greater impact on the pattern of wine sales than did changing the level of the ambient lighting. What is true for the sales of wine (in terms of the biasing effect of playing ethnically recognizable or classical music on people’s choice behaviour) has since been replicated in the restaurant/cafeteria context with people’s selection of food (e.g., Yeoh & North, 2010 ; Zellner, Geller, Lyons, Pyper, & Riaz, 2017 ; and see Spence, Reinoso-Carvalho, Velasco, & Wang, 2019 , for a recent review).

The cognitive psychology of wine brands

Many researchers have investigated the impact of the wine label on wine consumer behaviour (e.g., see Boudreaux & Palmer, 2007 ; Charters, Lockshin, & Unwin, 1999 ; Cutler, 2006 ; Gmuer, Siegrist, & Dohle, 2015 ; Mueller, Lockshin, Saltman, & Blanford, 2010 ; Shaw, Keeghan, & Hall, 1999 ; Thomas & Pickering, 2003 ; Tucker, 1998 , for research on wine bottle labels). Footnote 3 Part of the challenge here revolves around the sheer number of different wine brands that are typically available for purchase in any normal wine display/store combined with the fact that many wines change year on year (e.g., Britton, 1992 ; Rocchi & Stefani, 2005 ). While a part of the problem for shoppers is in finding the bottle they want, it can also be a challenge to remember/pronounce the name of the wine, even if one remembers what it is that one wants.

Just take the following wines and ask yourself how you would go about trying to pronounce them: Eitelsbacher Karthäuserhofberg Riesling Kabinett , Piesporter Goldtröpfchen, and the Hungarian varietal, Cserszegi Fuszeres . Footnote 4 As I am sure that you will readily agree, these names lack what the psychologist refers to as “processing fluency” (e.g., Labroo, Dhar, & Schwartz, 2008 ). Of course, it might well be imagined that a lack of processing fluency in the name of a wine brand would help to set expectations of a more complex tasting experience (see Alter & Oppenheimer, 2006 ; Dohle & Siegrist, 2014 ). However, when Gmuer et al. ( 2015 ) tested 123 participants in a field study in Switzerland, they found that their participants gave higher hedonic ratings to a wine whose label text was written in an easy as compared to a more difficult-to-read typeface. In this case at least, increased processing fluency (note that the participants had to read the entire wine label before tasting the wine) led to increased liking of the wine. The emerging field of the sound symbolism of luxury brands might also become increasingly relevant here (Pathak, Velasco, Petit, & Calvert, in press ).

There has been a great deal of discussion around the rise of the critter brand (e.g., Labroo et al., 2008 ): think only of all those bottles with a creature, such as an emu, giraffe, cat, frog, etc. prominently displayed on the front wine label. Other wine brands have selected some other distinctive icon, such as a red bicycle, or, in the 1960’s, think of the iconic Blue Nun or Black Tower. Such brands, note, are both easy to remember and easy to pronounce and, so the argument goes, this may have had something to do with their success in the marketplace. Other ways in which the wine marketers have on occasion attempted to make their brand stand out on the shelf, and so capture the shopper’s attention, is by colouring their white wine blue (see Spence, 2018b , for a review) or in one case going so far as to call their white wine “Red”. Footnote 5 There is also evidence that using a downward-pointing triangle on the label (e.g., see the Spanish Izadi wine brand, see http://www.izadi.com/en ), may implicitly trigger a danger/fear response, and thus potentially help a brand to stand out from the rest of the bottles on the shelf too (see Velasco, Woods, & Spence, 2015 ). A separate, but seemingly just as successful approach to wine marketing in recent decades has involved the use of witty wine labels (e.g., Atkin, 2010 ; May, 2009 ; Styles, 2004 ; Williams, 1999 ), though the consumers’ level of risk aversion may play a role here in determining how successful such an approach is (Lunardo & Rickard, 2019 ).

It can be argued that the wine aisle represents one of the most challenging of visual search environments. And while it is often claimed that colour drives the consumer’s search for products while shopping in the store (see Spence & Velasco, 2018 , for a review), Footnote 6 this would not obviously seem to be the case for wine labels/bottles (with a few notable exceptions; e.g., consider only Campo Viejo’s use of a distinctive yellow label, for a number of their wine brands; see https://www.campoviejo.com/en/wines ). The colour and shape of labels influence people’s wine expectations (e.g., Heatherly, Dein, Munafo, & Luckett, 2019 ; Lick et al., 2017 ; Lunardo & Livat, 2016 ). Heatherly et al. recently extended the crossmodal correspondences framework (see Spence, 2011c , 2012 ) specifically to the design of wine labels. The latter researchers assessed which colours and shapes participants thought were best associated with a Chardonnay wine expressing different aroma characteristics, namely buttery, citrus, floral, smoky, and vegetable. They used projective mapping with 3D shapes (varying in terms of their roundness versus angularity, and also in terms of their complexity - simple versus complex) and colours (red, brown, yellow, and green), along with a wine-label matching study. The results of their projective mapping study revealed that most of the Chardonnay odours were grouped similarly; however, the vegetable-forward Chardonnay wine tended to be associated with sharper shapes. Meanwhile, in Heatherly et al.’s label experiment, yellow labels were better matched with all odours, except the vegetable-forward wine, which was matched to all four colours equally. According to research reported by Lick et al. ( 2017 ), red and black wine labels for red wine are most likely to create tangy flavour expectations, while red and orange are most associated with fruity and flowery flavours instead. These flavour expectations based on crossmodal correspondences were stronger in those who bought wine more frequently.

The multisensory psychology of wine bottles

Piqueras-Fiszman and Spence ( 2012 ) conducted a field study demonstrating correlation between the weight of the wine bottle and the price across all of the 275 bottles for sale in a branch of the Oxford Wine Company store in Oxford. Footnote 7 They found that the consumer pays an average of £1 more for each 8 g extra weight of glass, or should that be that they obtain an average of 8 g more weight of glass for every £1 extra they pay? There is undoubtedly an implicit suggestion amongst the wine press that wine makers use this product-extrinsic cue deliberately (e.g., see Goldstein & Herschkowitsch, 2010 ). Footnote 8 It is the presence of additional weight that may also help to explain why so many people prefer drinks from a bottle rather than from a can (see Barnett, Velasco & Spence, 2016 ; Lefebvre & Orlowski, 2019 ; see also Kampfer, Leischnig, Ivens, & Spence, 2017 ). While Old World wine producers are often restricted to certain iconic bottle designs (and hence the shape/weight is more or less fixed), New World wine producers have rather more freedom to play with their bottle designs. In fact, certain wine bottles weigh more than 2 kg when empty, whereas other cheaper wines weigh less than 1 kg when full (see also Spence, 2017a ). The depth of the punt is also an intriguing feature here, though not one that has received any empirical research as far as I am aware. That said, this feature, and its possible association with wine quality is one that has attracted more than its fair share of discussion online (e.g., Anon, 2015 ; Touzalin, 2015 ).

Spence and Wang ( 2017 ) recently demonstrated that the sound of closure - cork versus screw-cap - can also help to set specific product-related expectations in the mind of the wine consumer (cf. Piqueras-Fiszman & Spence, 2015 ; Wang & Spence, 2019 ). They had 140 individuals (with a range of levels of wine expertise) taste and rate four glasses of red wine blind. Unbeknownst to the participants, they actually sampled two reasonably similar Argentinian wines (a Terrazas de los Andes, Malbec 2015, and a Catena, Malbec 2015) twice. On one occasion, one of the wines was tasted after hearing the sound of a cork-stoppered wine bottle being opened while the other was sampled after hearing the sound of the crack of the opening of a screw-top bottle. The second time that the wines were evaluated, the participants had to uncork one wine bottle and open the screw-top of another bottle, so the sound that they heard was self-generated. However, regardless of whether the participants only heard the sound, or else performed the action that gave rise to the packaging opening sound that they heard, they rated the wine as being of higher quality when it appeared to have come from a cork-stoppered bottle. The participants also rated the wine as being more appropriate for a celebratory occasion, and they rated their own mood as more celebratory, after hearing the sound of the wine bottle’s cork pop. Ratings of the intensity of the wine were, however, unaffected by the experimental manipulation. Footnote 9 Such results should perhaps not come as such a surprise given that knowledge of closure type, no matter the sense by which that information is transferred has been documented to influence consumers (e.g., Marin et al., 2007 ; Marin & Durham, 2007 ; Reynolds, Rahman, Bernard, & Holbrook, 2018 ).

Interim summary: the wine aisle is more complex and dynamically changing than perhaps any other category of branded food or beverage product. In part this reflects the natural variation of this product that changes year on year, together with the multitude of small brands/producers. In fact, according to wine writer Natalie MacLean ( 2008 ): “There are more than a million producers, and each one makes at least a few wines, all of which change every year. Multiply that together and it’s dazzling, overwhelming and confusing.” (quoted in Black, 2008 ). While on the one hand, this obviously makes the wine-taster’s job much harder on blind tasting, at least as far as identifying specific wines, when it comes to the regular consumer purchasing wine in the store, the marketers have had to be more inventive in terms of standing out from the constantly changing competition on the wine shelf (see also Chaney, 2000 ). This has led to a variety of innovative marketing strategies that can potentially be applied to other, less-developed, product categories. At the same time, however, the wine bottle itself, along with its traditional cork stopper, represents a very powerful marketing tool, especially for those who are able to caricature specific design features, such as, for example, increasing the weight of the bottle to try and signal quality (Spence, 2019e ; Velasco & Spence, 2019 ). Selling the wine in a box can also help connote quality (Sung, Crawford, Teah, Stankovic, & Phau, 2020 ).

The wine glass

Whenever we drink, there is always a receptacle, be it a glass, beaker, mug, bottle, or can. And while there has been a great deal of research on the sensory/chemical (what some have termed the organoleptic Footnote 10 ) properties of the drink itself, there has been far less research on the impact of the receptacle on the tasting experience (see Spence & Wan, 2016 , for a review). Until very recently, the only exception to this generalization came from the world of wine. In fact, over the last half century or so at least 20 studies have been published assessing the impact of the shape/size of the wine glass on people’s rating of the aroma/bouquet and taste/flavour of wine (see Spence, 2011b , for a review). Footnote 11 The research clearly shows that if the taster does not know which wine glass they are evaluating a wine in/from, either because they have been blindfolded while the glassware is agitated under the taster’s nose (Cliff, 2001 ; Delwiche & Pelchat, 2002 ) or because the glass in which the taster evaluates the wine is different from the glass in which the wine has been allowed to breathe (Russell, Zivanovic, Morris, Penfield, & Weiss, 2005 ), the glassware seems to make little difference to the taster’s experience. However, as soon as the latter become aware of the nature of the glass from which they are tasting, the glassware can suddenly make a huge difference to the tasting experience (e.g., Fischer, 1996 ; Fischer & Loewe-Stanienda, 1999 ; Hummel et al., 2003 ; Venturi et al., 2014 ; Venturi et al., 2016 ; Vilanova, Vidal, & Cortes, 2008 ; see also Attwood, Scott-Samuel, Stothart, & Munafò, 2012 ; Manska, 2018 ).

What such results suggest is that the influence of the wine glass is more psychological than physico-chemical in origin. Hence, the available research argues against the suggestion that the specific shape of the glass changes the flow properties of the liquid across the tongue (or rather, if it does, it argues against this having a noticeable difference to the tasting experience), or that the shape of the headspace above the wine in the glass helps to concentrate specific aroma volatiles. Instead, one might more fruitfully want to consider the crossmodal correspondences that are invoked by the shape of the glass itself (e.g., see Spence & Deroy, 2012 , Spence & Deroy, 2013b , 2013c , 2013d ; Velasco, Woods, Marks, Cheok, & Spence, 2016 ), and the more semantic associations with the apparent quality of the glassware (Billing, Öström, & Lagerbielke, 2008 ). Here it is interesting to note that while a round (rather than straight-sided) glass has been shown to bring out the fruity and sweet notes in both wine (Hummel et al., 2003 ) and beer (Mirabito, Oliphant, Van Doorn, Watson, & Spence, 2017 ), simply coating the outside of a 3D-printed cup with round versus angular macrotextural features has a similar effect on the perceived sweetness of a drink (Van Rompay, Finger, Saakes, & Fenko, 2017 ; though see also Machiels, 2018 ). Notice how, in the latter case, the flow properties of the liquid in the glasses will have been indistinguishable.

While sensitive measurement devices can often detect differences in the concentration of volatile aromas in the headspace above the surface of the wine in the glass (e.g., Arakawa et al., 2015 ; Hirson, Heymann, & Ebeler, 2012 ; Liger-Belair, Bourget, Pron, Polidori, & Cilindre, 2012 ), that does not necessarily mean that the taster can pick up on such differences. One of the important factors to bear in mind here is also the fact that mechanisms of olfactory perceptual constancy may well work against any attempts to maximize the volatile odorant intensity (Spence, 2017a ; see also Russell et al., 2005 ). That is, just like for the other senses, it has been suggested that mechanisms of perceptual constancy are involved in the olfactory system to try and obtain a better estimate of the odour source without being unduly swayed by other factors, such as any change in nasal airflow (see Spence, 2017a ; Teghtsoonian, Teghtsoonian, Berglund, & Berglund, 1978 ).

Interim summary: the drinking vessel, be it glass, goblet, cup, mug, beaker, or whatever else is always there when we drink (see Spence, 2011b , for a review), just as the flatware is an ever-present aspect of our dining experiences (Spence, 2017a ). However, while glassware it is an important factor influencing the multisensory drinking experience it has to date been little studied outside the world of wine. A careful assessment of the literature on the wine glass reveals that it can exert a profound influence over the tasting experience but that the origins of such effects are more psychological than physico-chemical in origin. Recently, researchers have started to assess the psychological influence of the drinking vessel in other beverage categories too. That said, the perceptually complex, and temporally evolving nature of the experience of fine wine may mean that the influence of glassware may ultimately be easier to observe there than in the case of a simpler beverage such as cola, or water (see Spence & Wan, 2016 , for a review).

Multisensory atmospherics and the wine-tasting experience

Spence et al. ( 2014 ) conducted what is perhaps the largest experimental wine-tasting event ever conducted, building on earlier research by Oberfeld, Hecht, Allendorf, and Wickelmaier ( 2009 ); see also Ross, Bohlscheid, & Weller, 2008 ; Sauvageot & Struillou, 1997 . Spence and his colleagues had almost 3000 members of the general public taste and rate a single 100-ml glass of Campo Viejo Reserva 2008 Rioja red wine under four different ambient conditions, involving regular white lighting followed by either red or green lighting. Both of the latter two coloured-lighting conditions were then presented together with putatively “sweet” or “sour” music, respectively (based on prior sonic seasoning research by Knöferle, Woods, Käppler, & Spence, 2015 ). The participants were given a scorecard on which they rated on line scales “How fruity vs. fresh does the wine taste?”, “How intense the flavour?” and “How much do you like the wine?”

The results revealed that the wine was rated as tasting significantly fruitier under red than under green lighting, and with putatively sweet rather than with sour background music. Interestingly, the scorecard on which the participants entered their responses also had a small space for those who took part to reflect on their experience should they so desire: 85 of the participants chose to write something in this space. The first-person reports helped to highlight the striking nature of the change in tasting experience that some of the participants experienced on sampling the wine under the different environmental conditions: “Fantastic experience. Really interesting. Changed perceptions completely.”; “Yes, amazing experience.”; “Great experience. I didn't think the colour/sound would alter my perception as much as that!” (quotes from Spence et al., 2014 , pp. 9–10).

That said, not everyone has demonstrated an impact of the environment on the wine-tasting experience. For instance, Jiang, Niimi, Ristic, and Bastian ( 2017 ) reported that changing the visual atmospherics in a room (introducing flowers, pictures, and coloured lighting) had no effect on 105 wine consumers’ ratings of a red wine. In the latter study, one atmospheric condition had a floral theme, the other, a “green” theme, with the researchers wanting to know whether they could bring out the floral or green notes in the three Cabernet Sauvignon wines that the participants were to taste. It is, at present, unclear why the results of this study should have been different from others in this space. Nevertheless, taken together, the admittedly limited evidence published to date clearly supports the view that the multisensory atmosphere can influence people’s taste/flavour perception, their choice behaviour, and even how much they end up consuming, be it in the world of wine, or when considering other alcoholic beverages (e.g., Sester et al., 2013 ; Velasco, Jones, King, & Spence, 2013 ; Wang & Spence, 2015b ).

Interim summary: while Spence et al. ( 2014 ) favoured a direct crossmodal perceptual account of the influence of lighting colour on their participants’ taste/flavour perceptions it should be noted that an emotional mediation account has also been suggested by other researchers working in the area. For instance, Oberfeld et al. ( 2009 ), p. 807 had the following to say when attempting to explain their earlier results of changing the colour of the lighting in a German winery: “if a colour induces a positive mood or emotion […] then the same wine tasted in this positive mood is liked better than when in a negative mood” . Once again, the contextual effects on the wine-tasting experience are likely to be replicated in the case of other food and drink products and in some cases already have (see Wang & Spence, 2015b ).

At this point in proceedings it is perhaps also worth pausing to highlight the fact that the consumption of significant amounts of alcohol has been reported to give rise to a change in perception of those of the opposite sex. This effect is colloquially known as the “beer goggles” effect (e.g., Gladue & Delaney, 1990 ; Jones, Jones, Thomas, & Piper, 2003 ). The effect appears to be strongest when men under the influence of alcohol judge the attractiveness of less attractive to moderately attractive women. However, I am not aware of a similar effect on the perception of wine as has been proposed previously in the case of attractiveness judgements. That being said, moderate amounts of alcohol have been shown to result in people rating landscape paintings as more attractive under the influence of moderate amounts of alcohol (Chen, Wang, Yang, & Chen, 2014 ; and see Fretter, 1971 , on the notion of wine as art). What is also worth stressing at this point is that the amount of alcohol consumed in many of these experiential wine-tasting events tends to be minimal - e.g., in The Campo Viejo Colour lab each participant only received one small measure of wine throughout the entire experience. This contrasts the beer goggles effect, which is typically observed under conditions of heavy consumption (see also George, Rogers, & Duka, 2005 , for the acute effects of alcohol on decision making).

Musical crossmodal correspondences with wine

Traditionally, the suggestion was that professional wine tastings take place in silence (e.g., Peynaud, 1987 ). However, the last decade or two has seen a veritable growth of interest in the matching of music and wine, and the crossmodal influence of the former on the latter (see Spence & Wang, 2015a , 2015b , 2015c , for reviews). Such sonic seasoning or oenosthesia research has run in parallel to an emerging body of laboratory research documenting first that people intuitively match basic tastes, such as sweet, sour, bitter, and salty with particular musical attributes, and thereafter that playing music (or soundscapes) with matching or mismatching sonic properties can influence people’s ratings of the taste/flavour of a variety of foods (e.g., Bronner, Bruhn, Hirt, & Piper, 2012 ; Crisinel & Spence, 2010 , 2012 ; Hauck & Hecht, 2019 ; Höchenberger & Ohla, 2019 ; Knöferle et al., 2015 ; Kontukoski et al., 2015 ; Mesz, Sigman, & Trevisan, 2012 ; Mesz, Trevisan, & Sigman, 2011 ; Simner, Cuskley, & Kirby, 2010 ).

There is, by now, an extensive body of research on crossmodal correspondences between wine and music (see Spence & Wang, 2015a , 2015b , 2015c , for reviews). This makes sense inasmuch as the experience of both music and wine are temporally evolving and often described as “complex”. What is more, the terms used to describe olfactory stimuli and musical notes sometimes overlap. Consider for instance here only the use of the terms such as “high notes”, “low notes”, “chords”, and “harmony”, etc. (see Deroy, Crisinel, & Spence, 2013 , for a review). Numerous studies have demonstrated that people consistently match certain wines with specific pieces of music, at least under those conditions in which they are forced to make a choice (Spence et al., 2013 ; Wang & Spence, 2015a ; see Spence & Wang, 2015a , for a review).

In one study, Spence et al. ( 2013 ) demonstrated that Domaine Didier Dagueneau Pouilly Fumé, a crisp white wine, was rated by participants as matching Mozart’s Flute Quartet in D major - Movement 1 significantly better than Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No 1 - Movement 2. However, the reverse pattern of results - that is, a better match with Tchaikovsky than Mozart - was observed when participants tasted a glass of Chateau Margaux, a rich red Bordeaux wine instead. Furthermore, in a subsequent experiment, tasting the wines while listening to matching music resulted in a small but significant increase in people’s rated enjoyment of the wine-drinking experience as compared to tasting the same wines in silence (Spence et al., 2013 ).

Summarizing the literature on wine-music correspondences, it is worth highlighting the fact that both simple and complex crossmodal correspondences have been demonstrated (see Spence, 2011c , 2018a , 2019d ; Spence et al., 2013 ). Indeed, the importance of emotion to such crossmodal matching is hinted at by the following quote from Paul White: “Red wines need either minor key or they need music that has negative emotion. They don’t like happy music…Cabernets like angry music.” (Gray, 2007a ). The emotional mediation of crossmodal correspondences between sound and basic taste has also been reported by Wang, Wang, & Spence, 2016 ; see also Crawshaw, A. ( 2012 ). How musical emotion may provide clues for understanding the observed impact of music on gustatory and olfactory perception in the context of wine-tasting. Unpublished manuscript; Wang & Spence, 2017a ). The emotional mediation account of music’s influence on wine-tasting is in some sense analogous to the way in which Oberfeld et al. ( 2009 ) attempted to account for the effect of strongly coloured lighting on the wine-tasting experience, as mentioned earlier.

One of the reasons as to why wine might represent an especially good subject for empirical research that capitalizes on the crossmodal correspondences is that it is often both complex, in terms of multiple elements in a temporally evolving tasting experience, and also is a product that displays infinite variation. What this means in practice is that it is going to be harder for a participant or consumer to fix on a specific flavour memory as, for example, might be possible were one to use a branded product such as Coca-Cola, say. The research shows that wine experts are also affected by music. Some of the earliest reports on the modulatory effects of music on wine-tasting actually have come from wine makers (see Gray, 2007a , 2007b ).

In a study conducted at the International Cool Climate Wine conference (Wang & Spence, 2017b ), 154 very experienced wine tasters - the majority of whom were professionals working in the wine business (with an average of 18.1 years of experience) - were tested. The first study assessed the impact of putatively “sweet” and “sour” soundtracks on taste evaluation, Footnote 12 whereas the second study assessed more subtle wine-specific terminology such as length, balance, and body. The results revealed that a crossmodal influence of music on wine perception can indeed be demonstrated in wine experts.

When thinking about music’s influence on the tasting experience, it can be helpful to discriminate between four different kinds of judgements, or impressions that we may ascribe to a wine (see Spence & Wang, 2015c ): hedonic - how much do we like the wine? Sensory - our assessment of the physical properties of the wine (such as its sweetness, acidity, alcohol) and their impact on the drinker (astringency, length, etc.); analytic - concerning such attributes as age, complexity, balance, quality, and price assessment; and descriptive - would one describe the wine as heavy or light, zingy or lush, masculine or feminine? Music can potentially influence all four kinds of judgements. It is, however, an open question as to whether all four kinds of judgement are equally susceptible to the influence of musical interventions.

One issue that has yet to be resolved in the world of sonic seasoning is whether wine experts are influenced as much by music as are social drinkers. Relevant here, Wang and Spence ( 2017b ) found no relationship between wine expertise, as measured in years of wine-tasting experience, and the magnitude of the influence of music on their participants’ wine ratings. Another issue that has yet to be fully resolved concerns whether the influence of music (and/or other soundscapes) are more pronounced under those conditions in which the taster’s attention has somehow been drawn to the potential correspondence between what they are listening to and what they are tasting, or whether such effects can occur in the absence of a specific connection being made (see Spence, 2019a ).

To date, those researchers interested in wine-music pairing have typically picked pre-existing musical selections, very often instrumental classical music in order to accentuate a specific attribute in the wine (e.g., see Spence, 2011a ; Spence et al., 2014 ; Wang & Spence, 2015a , 2015b ; White, 2008 , though see De Luca, Campo, & Lee, 2019 ; Gray, 2007a , 2007b ; North, 2012 , for exceptions). For example, North ( 2012 ) conducted a study showing that background music can be used to prime, and hence bias, attributes of the tasting experience, such as assessments of how “powerful and heavy” or “zingy and refreshing” a wine appears to be. North had 250 students studying in Scotland evaluate a glass of either white or red wine, while at the same time listening to music that had been pre-determined to be associated with one of four metaphorical categories (“powerful and heavy”, “zingy and refreshing”, “subtle and refined”, or “mellow and soft”). The students’ judgements of the wine were influenced by the music, with the students rating both wines as tasting more powerful and heavy when listening to Carmina Burana by Karl Orff and as tasting more zingy and refreshing when listening to Just Can’t get Enough by Nouvelle Vague (though see Spence & Deroy, 2013b , on the most appropriate interpretation of these results).

Burzynska, Wang, Spence, and Bastian ( 2019 ) recently published the results of research in which they attempted to enhance the perception of the mouthfeel character (of body and palate weight) in a wine simply by having people taste wine while listening to a low-frequency note (10–200 Hz). In particular, 50 participants (including 19 wine novices and 31 individuals with some experience of wine tasting) took part in the study in which all of the participants tasted two similar wines, a New Zealand Pinot Noir and a Spanish Garnacha. The wines were tasted in silence, together with a 100-Hz (bass) note (approximately equivalent to a musical note G 2 ), and while listening to a relatively higher pitch 1000-Hz sine wave tone (approximately equivalent to a musical note B 5 ). The participants had to rate the body of the wine and evaluate its aromatic intensity and acidity, and their liking of it. Listening to the bass note resulted in the Pinot Noir wine being rated as significantly fuller-bodied when tasted with a bass frequency than in silence or with a higher-frequency sound. Listening to the bass note also resulted in the other wine, the Spanish Garnacha, being rated as significantly more aromatically intense than when tasted in the presence of the higher-frequency auditory stimulus.

Wang, Frank, Houge, Spence, and LaTour ( 2019 ) recently introduced music as a unique aspect of a VIP tasting room experience at a family-owned Finger Lakes winery. A convenience sample of 46 participants (considered as “wine enthusiasts”) tasted four oaked still wines (two white and two red from the host vineyard; namely 2015 Chardonnay, the 2014 Hilda Chardonnay, the 2014 Pinot Noir, and the 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon) in silence and with a complementary soundtrack (the soundtrack can be streamed at https://soundcloud.com/benhouge/chivas-bitter ), Footnote 13 and rated the fruitiness, spiciness, and smoothness of each wine in both sound conditions. The results revealed that the wines tasted while the soundtracks were playing in the background were rated as significantly fruitier and smoother than the same wines when tasted in silence. There was, however, no effect on spiciness ratings.

Extraordinary wine-tasting experiences

Finally here, it is interesting to note that there is growing interest not just in modifying tasters’ ratings of wine attributes such as fruitiness, acidity, or sweetness, but in actually delivering extraordinary tasting experiences that are somehow more (or greater) than the sum of their parts (Spence, 2020a ; see also Mitchell et al., 2017 ). There have, for instance, been occasional reports of people being brought to tears by the combination of wine and purposely composed matching music (e.g., Knapton, 2015 ). Elsewhere, one finds descriptions such as the following from James John, Director of the Bath Wine School, talking about tasting Chardonnay while listening to Mozart’s Laudate Dominum: “[…] Just as the sonant complexity is doubled, the gustatory effects of ripe fruit on toasted vanilla explode on the palate and the appreciation of both is taken to an entirely new level” (quoted in Sachse-Weinert, 2012 ). The possibility of delivering such extraordinary multisensory tasting experiences by carefully combining music and wine tasting providing one answer to the refrain that is sometimes heard (especially, it would seem, from Masters of Wine) concerning why one should bother with changing the taste of wine via musical accompaniment when one could just pick a different wine in the first place (e.g., Spence, 2020a ; Spence & Wang, 2015c ).

At the same time, however, Sachse-Weinert’s ( 2012 ) quote might also make one wonder how much of what goes on in, and is written about, the world of wine is some kind of social construction based on expectations rather than necessarily reflecting a genuine perceptual effect. The results of blind tastings (see Spence, 2010c , for a review), together with the extensive literature on the absence of sensory threshold changes in expert wine-tasters (see Spence, 2019c ; Spence & Wang, 2019 ) certainly do suggest that higher-level cognitive/conceptual constructs, together with the associated mental imagery concerning what one is expected to taste/experience play a major part in the wine-tasting experience, especially for the experts (and here, I am thinking particularly about the wine writers; see also Bach, 2007 ).

Tasting a quality wine will likely reveal a temporally evolving range of flavours and oral-somatosensory attributes to the palate of the attentive wine taster (as revealed using sensory analysis techniques such as the temporal dominance of sensations (TDS, e.g., Meillon, Urbano, & Schlich, 2009 ; Wang, Mesz, et al., 2019 ). As such, selecting music to match just one attribute of the wine-tasting experience can sometimes be less than ideal. It should come as little surprise, therefore, to find that researchers have recently started to compose music that evolves in synchrony with the specific attributes that tasters are likely to detect in a wine (see Crisinel, Jacquier, Deroy, & Spence, 2013 , for a similar earlier approach to cognac, and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rph6oyIEJ9o , for a recent project conducted together with Godiva chocolate).

However, while all of the sonic seasoning research in the world of wine is impressive in terms of the changes in people’s ratings of specific wine attributes, it is worth remembering that the largest improvement to people’s enjoyment of the wine they are drinking may come about from pairing with music that they enjoy listening to (see Reinoso-Carvalho, Dakduk, Wagemans, & Spence, 2019 , for evidence consistent with this claim from beer-music pairing studies; see also Cramb, 2008 ).

Interim summary: in recent years, there has been a rapid growth of interest in the multiple ways in which what we hear may influence our perception of wine, and the wine-drinking experience more generally (see Spence & Wang, 2015a , 2015b , 2015c , for reviews). While the emotion that may be associated with, or induced by, listening to music may explain some of the effects that have been documented, a more direct perceptual effect resulting from crossmodally corresponding sounds drawing the taster’s attention to something in their tasting experience that they might otherwise have neglected would also seem to be an important part of sonic seasoning (Hennion, 2015 ; see Spence, 2019a ; Spence et al., 2019 , for reviews). It has been suggested that the complex and temporally evolving nature of the experience that is typically associated with drinking a quality wine might make such attentional effects more obviously than in the case of a simpler taste experience. Recently, researchers have started to compose music specifically to match the likely temporal evolution of the tasting experience. In order to do this, sensory science techniques, such as TDS, that allow one to track the ebb and flow of different notes, or elements, in the tasting experience over time have proved to be very helpful (Wang, Mesz, et al., 2019 ).

Conclusions

Given the emerging understanding of wine psychology, broadly defined, it should come as little surprise to see the explosion of experimental multisensory wine marketing research that has been published in recent years (see Spence, 2019b , for a review). Footnote 14 Wine makers and wine brands, both large and small, are increasingly coming to recognize the benefits of cognitive research to help enhance their cellar door and tasting room experiences for discerning customers (see Spence et al., 2014 ; Wang, Frank, et al., 2019 ). As should have become apparent, crossmodal correspondences between wine and shapes, colours (Heatherly et al., 2019 ), musical stimuli (e.g., Burzynska et al., 2019 ; Wang, Mesz, et al., 2019 ), and even tactile stimuli (see Wang & Spence, 2018b ) Footnote 15 are potentially relevant when trying to communicate with the consumer, be it in the store or while tasting in the home or elsewhere.

There is, in other words, a potentially rich interaction between business-relevant findings that can also generate insights that should be of interest to basic researchers. Understanding the many influences on the wine-tasting experience may provide relevant insights for various areas of cognitive research. Importantly, however, there are also grounds for believing that our understanding of basic issues in cognitive research can be furthered by studying a perceptually, not to mention chemically complex, culturally and historically ecologically valid foodstuff such as wine (e.g., Estreicher, 2006 ; Unwin, 1996 ). Returning to a point that was made in the introduction, one can see this approach in terms of Rozin’s ( 2006 ) notion of domain-led rather than process-driven approach to areas of interest to those working in applied psychology. And, for those interested in the world of food and drink more generally, there is a sense in which it makes sense to ask what has been done/discussed/discovered in the world of wine before progressing one’s specific research agenda. Indeed, the latest research on everything from the impact of the colour and shape of labels/packaging (de Sousa, Carvalho, & Pereira, in press ; Pelet, Durrieu, Lick, 2020 ) through to the impact of felt texture on the tasting experience in the world of coffee (Carvalho, Moksunova, & Spence, 2020 ; Pramudya, Choudhury, Zou, & Seo, 2020 ) would appear to support the previous findings that have already been established in the world of wine (e.g., Heatherly et al., 2019 ; Wang & Spence, 2018b ).

One of the issues that undoubtedly adds to the complexity of wine choice is that it is often consumed together with food, and there is a growing literature on the art and science of flavour pairing as in the case of food and wine matching (e.g., Hall, Lockshin, & O’Mahony, 2001 ; see Spence, 2020b , for a review). In fact, one of the factors that can make matching food and wine so challenging is the existence of perceptual interactions between the tastes that are present in the component foods, such as mixture suppression, adaptation, and release from masking (e.g., Breslin & Beauchamp, 1997 ; Dubow & Childs, 1998 ; McBurney & Pfaffmann, 1963 ; and see Spence, n.d. , submitted; Wang, Mesz, et al., 2019 , for reviews). It is currently an open question as to whether any of these intramodal interaction effects can be fruitfully extended to the crossmodal case, such as to provide an explanation for sonic seasoning. At the same time, however, it should be remembered that certain of these phenomena, such as masking, may be restricted in the intramodal case (Gescheider & Niblette, 1967 ; see also Hillis, Ernst, Banks, & Landy, 2002 ).

While wine research undoubtedly has a number of practical applications, it also provides insights concerning multisensory perception that are relevant to basic scientists. For instance, laboratory researchers interested in various aspects of multisensory integration, such as the audiovisual ventriloquism effect or visuotactile interactions in shape or orientation perception, typically present the various modalities simultaneously (e.g., Alais & Burr, 2004 ; Ernst & Banks, 2002 ; Gori, Del Viva, Sandini, & Burr, 2008 ). However, what becomes clear from the case of wine-tasting is the sequential nature of the taster’s multisensory interaction with the product. First come the visual cues, then orthonasal olfaction, and thereafter gustation, oral-somatosensation, and eventually retronasal olfaction. As such, the earlier presented cues (e.g., vision) tend to set expectations, and perhaps even generate crossmodal mental imagery concerning the tastes and flavours that are expected to be present in the wine (Nanay, 2018 ; Piqueras-Fiszman & Spence, 2015 ; Spence & Deroy, 2013d ). These sensory expectations then anchor, guide, and possibly interact with the subsequent sensory inputs in ways that are yet to be fully elucidated.

Availability of data and materials

Not applicable.

The colour of the wine still influences participants’ judgements even when the latter are instructed to ignore the visual cues because they may be misleading (see Parr et al., 2003 ; see also Zampini, Sanabria, Phillips, & Spence, 2007 , Zampini, Wantling, Phillips, & Spence, 2008 , for similar results with fruit-flavoured soft drinks).

One of the challenges associated with working with wine is the suggestion that bottle variation can lead to significant differences between bottles of the same wine. What is more, the fact that the product is in a slow yet constant state of evolution (e.g., Lee, Kang, & Park, 2011 ; Wirth et al., et al., 2012 ), means that it is next to impossible to replicate exactly the conditions/stimuli in any previous published study.

As wine label designer, Dave Osmundson (quoted in Cutler, 2006 ) notes: “With some of these bigger companies that are selling lower end, value wines, if you were to taste the wines, you would see little difference, but the label plays even a bigger role with the package. When you are making millions of cases of wine, it's hard to make that wine taste unique. The package makes the difference: the identification with those colors, that design.”

According to May ( 2009 ), the correct pronunciation for the latter crossing of Gewurtztraminer and Irsai Oliver grapes from the Neszmely winery in Hungary is “Chair-Sheggy Foo-share-us”.

This presumably triggering some kind of Stroop-like interference (Stroop, 1935 ; see also Velasco, Wan, et al., 2015 ).

For instance, Singh ( 2006 , p. 783) claims that colour drives 62–90% of all consumer purchasing decisions (see also Swientek, 2001 ).

Wine, like lipstick, is one of the few products where the volume/mass of the product itself is essentially fixed (750 ml for the majority of wine bottles), hence meaning that any changes in packaging weight are perhaps more noticeable than they might otherwise be for other product categories.

For instance, Goldstein and Herschkowitsch ( 2010 , p. 80) claim that: “These Bogle bottles are hefty, and their weight is a nice feature – one that often tricks people into thinking the wine is more expensive than it really is.”

This study was conducted in the UK. It is possible that the results may have been different if the study were to be repeated in New World wine growing regions, such as Australia or California, where quality wines are often sold in screw-top bottles (Marin, Jorgensen, Kennedy, & Ferrier, 2007 ; Taber, 2007 ).

Organoleptic properties are defined as those aspects of food and drink that create an individual experience via the senses - including taste, sight, smell, and touch (see Bruni, 2011 ).

According to Hummel et al. ( 2003 , p. 197): “Many wine connoisseurs claim that the shape of the glass exerts a direct impact on the taste of wines. In fact, many agree that the glass itself may change intensity, quality, and hedonic tone of a given wine.”

The sweet soundtrack had bells, piano, and synthesizer, has consonant harmonies, and legato articulation. The sour soundtrack, by contrast, included piccolo and clarinet, has dissonant harmony, and staccato articulation. The soundtracks from both studies can be heard at https://soundcloud.com/janicewang09/sets/iccws-2016 .

The instruments were cello, woodblocks, temple bells, some low percussion, a sustained woodwind texture, and a low drone sound comprising several elements (including voice and string instruments; Houge, 2015 ).

In fact, there is even an app now that allows one to scan a wine label and it will select what is promised to be matching music ( http://winelistening.com/ ; see also Jones, 2014 ; https://sabordasmusicas.withspotify.com/ ).

The Italian Futurists had mentioned something very similar, which they referred to as syn-tactilismo (Marinetti, 1932/2014 ).

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Introduction, section snippets, references (51), cited by (32).

Journal of Food Engineering

A review of wine fermentation process modeling.

• • Wine process modeling elucidates phenomena and allows for process optimization.
• • Fermentation kinetic models describe yeast growth and accumulation of metabolites.
• • Spatial heterogeneity must be modeled in wine fermentations via transport phenomena.
• • Models of wine fermentations should include extraction of phenolics from grapes.

Wine fermentation kinetics in well-mixed systems

Developing physical models for heterogeneous wine fermentors, phenolic extraction dynamics and modeling, grant numbers, declaration of competing interest, acknowledgements, modeling of heat transfer in tanks during wine-making fermentation, food control, process system engineering in biodiesel production: a review, renew. sustain. energy rev., a dynamic, genome-scale flux model of lactococcus lactis to increase specific recombinant protein expression, metab. eng., factors affecting extraction and evolution of phenolic compounds during red wine maceration and the role of process modeling, trends food sci. technol., mathematical modelling of anthocyanin mass transfer to predict extraction in simulated red wine fermentation scenarios, food res. int., structured model for saccharomyces cerevisiae, chem. eng. sci., using data mining techniques to predict industrial wine fermentations, assessment of four biodiesel production processes using hysis, plant. bioresource technology, modeling temperature gradients in wine fermentation tanks, j. food eng., kinetics of product inhibition, biotechnol. bioeng., a kinetic study of the alcoholic fermentation of glucose by saccharomyces cereviseae, chem. eng. prog. symp. ser., effects of the temperature and ethanol on the kinetics of proanthocyanidin adsorption in model wine systems, j. agric. food chem., heat-induced desorption of proanthocyanidins from grape-derived cell wall material under variable ethanol concentrations in model wine systems, alcoholic fermentation: model accounting for initial nitrogen influence, transport phenomena, the heat transfer characteristics of wine fermentors, am. j. enol. vitic., the prediction of fermentation behavior by a kinetic model, principles and practices of winemaking, study of the solid-liquid extraction kinetics of total polyphenols from grape seeds, temperature-dependent kinetic model for nitrogen-limited wine fermentations, appl. environ. microbiol., optimization of batch fermentation processes. 1. development of mathematical models for batch penicillin fermentations, kinetic model for nitrogen-limited wine fermentations, a kinetic study of the alcoholic fermentation of grape juice, a brief history of heat and chemical preservation and disinfection, j. appl. bacteriol., effects of cap and overall fermentation temperature on phenolic extraction in cabernet sauvignon fermentations, review on anaerobic digestion models: model classification & elaboration of process phenomena, effect of selenium supplementation on yeast growth, fermentation efficiency, phytochemical and antioxidant activities of mulberry wine.

This will give the beverage a premium market value amidst its health significance and quality (Adadi et al., 2018; Dey & Sireswar, 2019; Giovinazzo & Grieco, 2019). Nonetheless, in the wake of these developments, enologists are particular of the quality indices of wine generated as a result of raw material, fermentation parameters and especially new additives (Miller and Block, 2020). New additives such as Se can influence the chemistry of must constituents, bioactive compounds and color.

Recent advances in the knowledge of wine oligosaccharides

Winemaking relates to the transformation of grapes into wine, involving a variable set of elements which play a key role. Two of the most important and influencing factors generally considered by winemakers are grape quality and winemaking practices (e.g. maceration time, temperature, classical –cold pre-fermentative maceration, enzymatic treatments–and emerging –application of ultrasounds, microwaves and pulsed electric field– technologies, yeast used, fining agents, ageing) (Apolinar-Valiente et al., 2014; Clodoveo, Dipalmo, Rizzello, Corbo, & Crupi, 2016; Martínez-Lapuente et al., 2016; Aleixandre-Tudó & du Toit, 2018; Frost, Blackman, Hjelmeland, Ebeler, & Heymann, 2018; Minnaar, Nyobo, Jolly, Ntushelo, & Meiring, 2018; Jiménez-Martínez, Bautista-Ortín, Gil-Muñoz, & Gómez-Plaza, 2019; Miller & Block, 2019). Bordiga et al. (2012) identified and characterized oligosaccharides in Chardonnay white and Grignolino red wines.

Ecological succession and functional characteristics of lactic acid bacteria in traditional fermented foods

The monod model is insufficient to explain biomass growth in nitrogen-limited yeast fermentation, mathematical modelling to enhance winemaking efficiency: a review of red wine colour and polyphenol extraction and evolution.

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Pomegranate wine production and quality: a comprehensive review.

1. Introduction

2. physicochemical and phytochemical properties of pomegranate fruit relevant to winemaking.

3. Pomegranate Fruit as a Wine Substrate

4. Pre-Fermentation Factors Affecting Pomegranate Wine Quality

4.1. effect of raw material on wine quality, 4.2. effects of juice extraction methods on pomegranate wine quality, 5. microorganisms and other abiotic factors affecting pomegranate wine quality, 5.1. effects of yeasts on pomegranate wine quality, 5.3. temperature, 6. techniques used in analyzing pomegranate juice and wine products, 6.1. subjective sensory assessment of pomegranate wine quality, 6.2. objective measurements of pomegranate wine quality, 6.2.1. wet chemistry, 6.2.2. metabolomics, 7. conclusions and future prospects, author contributions, institutional review board statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

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Ezeora, K.C.; Setati, M.E.; Fawole, O.A.; Opara, U.L. Pomegranate Wine Production and Quality: A Comprehensive Review. Fermentation 2024 , 10 , 348. https://doi.org/10.3390/fermentation10070348

Ezeora KC, Setati ME, Fawole OA, Opara UL. Pomegranate Wine Production and Quality: A Comprehensive Review. Fermentation . 2024; 10(7):348. https://doi.org/10.3390/fermentation10070348

Ezeora, Kasiemobi Chiagozie, Mathabatha Evodia Setati, Olaniyi Amos Fawole, and Umezuruike Linus Opara. 2024. "Pomegranate Wine Production and Quality: A Comprehensive Review" Fermentation 10, no. 7: 348. https://doi.org/10.3390/fermentation10070348

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The Journal of Wine Research (JWR) has a near 30–year history of publishing varied articles examining aspects of viticulture, oenology and the international wine trade. The primary objective of this research is to examine the characteristics of literature published in the JWR through bibliographic analysis. The research utilises the Scopus database to identify the most productive authors, countries and papers published in the JWR since it was established in 1990. The total number of publications and citations are used to assess productivity, in terms of the number of publications, influence, and the number of citations of both authors and countries. Network maps were created using the VOSViewer software examining patterns of co–authorship, co–citation and keyword co–occurrence. The results indicate that the most prolific authors, in terms of the number of publications, are not necessarily producing the most profound research that gains traction through citations in the field. This study is helpful for prospective JWR authors, readers and editors who wish to understand the intellectual landscape of the journal in terms of the productivity and impact of different stakeholder groups and the noted trends of publications. The paper concludes by acknowledging limitations of the study and discussing implications for future authors.

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The health benefits of wine

Affiliation.

• 1 Department of Food Science, University of California at Davis, Davis, California 95616, USA. [email protected]
• PMID: 10940346
• DOI: 10.1146/annurev.nutr.20.1.561

Epidemiologic studies from numerous disparate populations reveal that individuals with the habit of daily moderate wine consumption enjoy significant reductions in all-cause and particularly cardiovascular mortality when compared with individuals who abstain or who drink alcohol to excess. Researchers are working to explain this observation in molecular and nutritional terms. Moderate ethanol intake from any type of beverage improves lipoprotein metabolism and lowers cardiovascular mortality risk. The question now is whether wine, particularly red wine with its abundant content of phenolic acids and polyphenols, confers additional health benefits. Discovering the nutritional properties of wine is a challenging task, which requires that the biological actions and bioavailability of the >200 individual phenolic compounds be documented and interpreted within the societal factors that stratify wine consumption and the myriad effects of alcohol alone. Further challenge arises because the health benefits of wine address the prevention of slowly developing diseases for which validated biomarkers are rare. Thus, although the benefits of the polyphenols from fruits and vegetables are increasingly accepted, consensus on wine is developing more slowly. Scientific research has demonstrated that the molecules present in grapes and in wine alter cellular metabolism and signaling, which is consistent mechanistically with reducing arterial disease. Future research must address specific mechanisms both of alcohol and of polyphenolic action and develop biomarkers of their role in disease prevention in individuals.

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ARTICLE ON WINE PRODUCTION FROM DIFFERENT FRUITS

Wine is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented grapes or other fruits. Many tropical fruits such as mango, jackfruit, litchi, banana and cashew apple have been shown to be suitable for fermentation, mainly because of their appropriate taste, flavour, availability, high sugar and water content and overall chemical composition (Muniz et al. 2008). The natural chemical balance of these fruits lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, water, or other nutrients. Yeast consumes the sugars in the fruits and converts them into alcohol. Study was conducted to produce red wine without using any sugar and making use of the kitchen yeast strain i.e saccharomyces cereisiae and was tested for the different physical and chemical characteristics of the wine such as acidity ,sugar content and other quantitative and qualitative tests. The wine was produced in simple lab conditions and using simple lab utensils and instruments so this techniques may very well reduce the overall cost of wine production. The production and tests were conducted in small scale but this technique can be converted to large scale with few changes.

Related papers

Fruit is an essential part of your diet using essential part of vitamin and minerals that contribute to overall strength for your health. Fruit wines are undistilled alcoholic beverages usually made from grapes or other fruits such as peaches, plums or apricots, banana, elderberry, or black current which are nutritive, more tasty, and mild stimulants. These fruits undergo a period of fermentation and aging. They usually have an alcohol content ranging between 5 and 13%. Wines made from fruits are often named after the fruits. No other drinks, except water and milk, have earned such universal acceptance and esteem throughout the ages as has wine. Wine is a food with a flavor like fresh fruit which could be stored and transported under the existing conditions. Being fruit-based fermented and undistilled product, wine contains most of the nutrients present in the original fruit juice. The nutritive value of wine is increased due to the release of amino acids and other nutrients from yeast during fermentation. Fruit wines contain 8–11% alcohol and 2–3% sugar with energy value ranging between 70 and 90 kcal per 100 ml. The present explained about the fermentation of wine and its quality analysis. In this present review, we discussed about fermentation, history of fermentation, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and alcoholic fermentation, fermentation of fruit juice into wine, classification of wine, factors influencing fermentation and wine quality, and Indian wine market.

SpringerPlus, 2015

Pawpaw, banana and watermelon are tropical fruits with short shelf-lives under the prevailing temperatures and humid conditions in tropical countries like Nigeria. Production of wine from these fruits could help reduce the level of post-harvest loss and increase variety of wines. Pawpaw, banana and watermelon were used to produce mixed fruit wines using Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolated from palm wine. Exactly 609 and 406 g each of the fruits in two-mixed and three-mixed fruit fermentation respectively were crushed using laboratory blender, mixed with distilled water (1:1 w/v), and heated for 30 min with subsequent addition of sugar (0.656 kg). The fruit musts were subjected to primary (aerobic) and secondary (anaerobic) fermentation for 4 and 21 days respectively. During fermentation, aliquots were removed from the fermentation tank for analysis. During primary fermentation, consistent increases in alcohol contents (ranging from 0.0 to 15.0 %) and total acidities (ranging from 0.20 to 0.80 %) were observed with gradual decrease in specific gravities (ranging from 1.060 to 0.9800) and pH (ranging from 4.80 to 2.90). Temperature ranged from 27 °C to 29 °C. The alcoholic content of the final wines were 17.50 ± 0.02 % (pawpaw and watermelon), 16.00 ± 0.02 % (pawpaw and banana), 18.50 ± 0.02 % (banana and watermelon wine) and 18.00 ± 0.02 % (pawpaw, banana and watermelon). The alcoholic content of the wines did not differ significantly (p > 0.05). The pH of all the wines were acidic and ranged from 2.5 ± 0.01 to 3.8 ± 0.01 (p > 0.05). The acid concentration (residual and volatile acidity) were within the acceptable limit and ranged from 0.35 ± 0.02 to 0.88 ± 0.01 % (p > 0.05). Sensory evaluation (P > 0.05) rated the wines acceptability as 'pawpaw and banana wine' > 'pawpaw and watermelon' > 'pawpaw, watermelon and banana' > 'banana and watermelon wine'. This study has shown that acceptable mixed fruit wines could be produced from the fruits with S. cerevisiae from palm wine.

Abstract The article presents review on potential of wine production from various fruits, classification of wines and current status of wine industry. Various wine classes such as grape wine, fruit wine, berry wine, vegetable wine, plant wine, raisin wine etc. have been discussed in this paper. Recent updates on wine production from various tropical and a subtropical fruit like mango, banana, and apple cider is also reported. Keywords: Fruit wine, mango wine, banana wine, apple wine.

Journal of Food Science, 1975

This research was carried out to produce wine from banana (Musa sapientum) pulp using yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) isolated from grape (Vitis vinifera).The fermentation of the banana wine lasted for 21 days. Physico-chemical parameters were determined during fermentation using standard procedures. Liquor of the fermenting must was removed for every 48 hours from the fermentor for analysis of pH, titratable acidity, specific gravity and reducing sugar using standard procedures. The results from the experiment showed that specific gravity of the wine was observed to reduce drastically as the fermentation progressed. The pH of the banana wine during fermentation increased from 4.16-4.22 at day to the last day while the titrable acidity (% w/v tartaric acid) of the banana wine produced increased from 1.05-1.77. The alcohol content of the wine increased with time. The specific gravity values were observed to range from 1.266 to 1.184 kg/m 3 which gradually decreased throughout the period of fermentation. At the end of the fermentation,

World Journal of Biology Pharmacy and Health Sciences

The article presents review on potential of wine production from Banana. Traditional alcoholic beverage has become common because of economic issue. This work was aimed to improve production process of alcoholic beverage based banana extract and to evaluate sensory parameters of the obtained alcoholic beverage. Juice was extracted from banana (Musa sapientum) pulp with was inoculated with Baker's yeast (Saccharomyces Cerevisiae)and naturally grown mycelium and held at 30+2'c for 14 days. Banana, a wonderfully sweet fruit with firm and creamy flesh that come prepackaged in a yellow jacket, available for harvest throughout the year consists mainly of sugars and fibers which make it a source of immediate and slightly prolonged energy. When consumed, reduces depression, anemia, blood pressure, stroke risk, heartburns, ulcers, stress, constipation and diarrhea. The physical chemical parameters was determine during the fermentation using a standard procedures like pH , type of alc...

Asian Journal of Applied Science and Technology (AJAST), 2023

Wine is a fermented drink made by the controlled culture of yeasts on fruit juices. This study was undertaken to produce acceptable wines from blends of banana and pineapple by the fermentative action of Meyerozyma guilliermondii strain 1621 and Pichia guilliermondii strain PAX-PAT 18S. The fermentation process lasted for a period of 28 days and, the aging process was for 2 months. The fermentation process comprised two set ups- one was fermented by Meyerozyma guilliermondii strain 1621 and the other was fermented by Pichia guilliermondii strain PAX-PAT 18S. The process was monitored and controlled by carrying out physicochemical analysis (pH, temperature, specific gravity, total titratable acidity, and alcohol content) and yeast count using standard methods. There was a decrease in the pH for both wines and an increase in the total titratable acidity. The temperature was between 17 and 27 0C for both wines. The specific gravity of the wines decreased during the fermentation leading to an increase in alcohol production. There was an increase in yeast count from 6.7×107 sfu/ml to 1.8×108 sfu/ml between days 1 and 17 and a decrease from 1.8×108 sfu/ml to 0 sfu/ml between days 17 to 85 for Meyerozyma guilliermondii; also an increase from 5.1×107 sfu/ml to 1.7×108 sfu/ml from day 1 to 17, and a decrease from 1.7×108 sfu/ml to 0 sfu/ml between day 17 to 85 for Pichia guilliermondii. Statistically, there was no significant difference between the yeast counts, temperature, pH, total titratable acidity, and specific gravity but there was signa ificant difference between the alcohol production for both wines. This study shows that wines can be successfully produced using Meyerozyma guilliermondii strain 1621 and Pichia guilliermondii strain PAX-PAT 18S.

Croatian Journal of Food Science and Technology

Juice was extracted from banana (Musa sapientum) pulp with the addition of lemon juice and was inoculated with Baker‟s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and held at 30±2c for seven days. The result of the yeast count increases at 48hr, and at 96hr the yeast count decreased gradually. It ranges from 4.9x10 7 cfu/ml at 0hr, 5.1x10 7 at the 48hr and 4.8x10 7 cfu/ml at 168hr. The pH of the Banana wine produced at the end of fermentation decreased (2.85) while the testable acidity of the Banana wine produced increased. The total dissolved solids, total suspended solids decreased with increasing length of the fermentation time of juice. The alcohol content of the wine increased with 14%.

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Red Wine Consumption and Cardiovascular Health

Luigi castaldo.

1 Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Naples “Federico II”, Via Domenico Montesano 49, 80131 Naples, Italy; [email protected] (L.C.); moc.liamg@nomisnosnofla (A.N.); [email protected] (L.I.); [email protected] (G.G.); ti.oiligriv@irapsaganna (A.G.)

2 Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, University of Naples “Federico II”, Via S. Pansini 5, 80131 Naples, Italy; ti.aninu@onnimid

Alfonso Narváez

Giulia graziani, anna gaspari, giovanni di minno, alberto ritieni.

Wine is a popular alcoholic beverage that has been consumed for hundreds of years. Benefits from moderate alcohol consumption have been widely supported by the scientific literature and, in this line, red wine intake has been related to a lesser risk for coronary heart disease (CHD). Experimental studies and meta-analyses have mainly attributed this outcome to the presence in red wine of a great variety of polyphenolic compounds such as resveratrol, catechin, epicatechin, quercetin, and anthocyanin. Resveratrol is considered the most effective wine compound with respect to the prevention of CHD because of its antioxidant properties. The mechanisms responsible for its putative cardioprotective effects would include changes in lipid profiles, reduction of insulin resistance, and decrease in oxidative stress of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). The aim of this review is to summarize the accumulated evidence correlating moderate red wine consumption with prevention of CHD by focusing on the different mechanisms underlying this relationship. Furthermore, the chemistry of wine as well as chemical factors that influence the composition of the bioactive components of red wine are also discussed.

1. Introduction

Coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke are the leading causes of mortality, disability, and death in developed countries [ 1 ]. Most CHDs are due to atherosclerosis, a degenerative process of the arteries which is triggered by oxidative stress and chronic inflammatory status [ 2 , 3 ]. Smoking, arterial hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes mellitus, overweight/obesity, lack of physical activity, and genetic factors are known to play a role in determining cardiovascular risk [ 4 ].

Although excessive alcohol intake is associated with the development of chronic diseases and other serious problems, a wealth of data from scientific evidence support an inverse relationship between moderate alcohol consumption and the risk of CHD [ 5 ]. Moderate alcohol consumption is defined in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015–2020 as up to one unit of alcohol per day for women and up to two units of alcohol per day for men [ 6 ].

Several studies provide evidence that light–moderate alcohol consumption is associated with a higher level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), a lower incidence of type-2 diabetes (T2D), and a reduction of lipid oxidative stress [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ]. Such epidemiological studies have supported that red wine consumption is more CHD-preventative in comparison to the intake of other alcoholic beverages [ 11 ]. It is uncertain whether the apparent beneficial properties for health attributed to the consumption of red wine are due solely to the presence of alcohol or also to the concerted action of alcohol and antioxidant compounds other than alcohol present in red wine [ 12 ]. In addition to alcohol, red wine contains a wide range of active compounds—polyphenols—with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that could contribute to protection from atherosclerotic pathologies [ 13 ].

Light–moderate drinking of red wine has been proposed as a possible explanation for the epidemiological phenomenon known as the “French Paradox” [ 14 ], which indicates that the French population shows relatively lower CHD incidence/mortality rate compared with other Western populations, despite their diets contain higher amounts of total fat and saturated fatty acids.

The main objective of this review is to summarize the various red wine components and their cardioprotective potential. In addition, we discuss the putative mechanisms and the chemical factors that influence the activity of the bioactive components of red wine. All studies regarding the relationship between red wine consumption and CHD published over the last decade have been taken into consideration.

2. Bioactive Components in Red Wine

Red wine contains high concentrations of polyphenolic compounds such as flavonoids (catechin, epicatechin, quercetin, anthocyanins, and procyanidins), resveratrol (3,5,4′-trihydroxystilbene), and polymeric tannins [ 15 ]. In general, red wine is rich in polyphenols and may be considered as an important polyphenols source in the diet [ 16 ]. The presence of phenolic compounds in red wine seems to be crucial, since scientific studies have reported that these important secondary metabolites are responsible for desirable biological actions, including cardiovascular protection effects [ 17 , 18 , 19 ].

2.1. Non-Flavonoid

Non-flavonoid phenolic components of grapes and wine include three main groups: stilbenes, benzoic acids, and cinnamic acids [ 20 ]. The last two groups can be present as hydroxybenzoic and hydroxycinnamic acids. Benzoic acids are present in the grape as well as in oak wood and, during storage, can migrate into wine [ 21 ]. In general, this group of compounds is present in red wine at concentrations ranging from 60 to 566 mg/L.

2.1.1. Hydroxybenzoic Acids

Hydroxybenzoic acids (HBAs) are phenolic metabolites with a general C6–C1 structure. In red wine, the most abundant HBAs are represented by p -hydroxybenzoic, gallic, vanillic, gentisic, syringic, salicylic, and protocatechuic acids [ 22 , 23 ]. As reported, the different hydroxybenzoic acids may occur mainly in their free forms [ 24 ]. Gallic acid is an important HBA present in red wine but not in grape and it is probably formed by hydrolysis of tannins (condensed or hydrolyzable) during the vesting period in oak wood [ 25 ]. The total amount of hydroxybenzoic acids in red wine is expected to range from undetectable to 218 mg/L, as shown in Table 1 .

Main representative groups of polyphenols present in red wine [ 67 , 68 , 69 , 77 , 94 , 95 , 96 ].

2.1.2. Hydroxycinnamic Acids

Hydroxycinnamic acids are the major phenols in both grapes and wine [ 26 , 27 ]. Caffeic, coumaric, and ferulic acids are some of the most important compounds in this polyphenol sub-class [ 28 ]. Natural hydroxycinnamic acids are not found in grape, appearing as their tartaric acid esters or diesters [ 29 ]. The main hydroxycinnamic acids of wine are p -coutaric, caftaric, and fertaric acids [ 30 ]. In nature, hydroxycinnamic acids exist in two isomeric forms, but the trans -form is the most abundant in both grapes and wine [ 31 ]. Coutaric acid is mainly contained in the grape skin, while trans -caftaric and trans -fertaric acid are mainly present in the pulp [ 32 ]. The amount of hydroxycinnamic acids in different red wines was found to range from 60 to 334 mg/L, as shown in Table 1 .

2.1.3. Resveratrol

Resveratrol (3, 4, 5 trihydroxystilbene), a non-flavonoid polyphenolic compound, is a common phytoalexin synthesized in response to the attack of bacteria and fungi [ 33 ]. It is present in more than 70 plant species, including berries, peanuts, cocoa, and grape skin [ 34 ]. Resveratrol has two phenol rings linked to each other by a styrene double bond in its chemical structure [ 35 ]. It exists as cis - (Z) and trans - (E) isomers, and both have been detected in wine at variable concentrations [ 36 , 37 ] ranging from 0.1 to 7 mg/L and from 0.7 to 6.5 mg/L, respectively [ 38 ]. Variability is mainly due to grape cultivar, geographic origin, oenological practices, and wine type [ 39 ].

Several studies regarding the health benefits of trans -resveratrol in maintaining human health and preventing a wide variety of human diseases are available [ 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 ].

Magyar et al. [ 46 ] investigated the cardioprotective effect of low doses of resveratrol (10 mg/day) in 40 patients with stable coronary artery disease. The results showed that resveratrol intake displayed a significantly lowered low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) level, improved endothelial function and left ventricular diastolic function, and protected against some unfavorable hemorheological changes.

Romain et al. [ 47 ] investigated the benefits of a grapevine-shoot phenolic extract (Vineatrol 30) that contained considerable amounts of resveratrol (about 15.2%) on the cardiovascular system in hamsters fed a high-fat diet. The results showed that Vineatrol 30 was able to prevent aortic fatty streak deposition by increasing antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities.

Fujitaka et al. [ 48 ] investigated the effects of a high dose (100 mg/day) of modified resveratrol, Longevinex, on the metabolic profile, inflammatory response, and endothelial function in subjects with metabolic syndrome (MetS). The results showed that after three weeks, modified resveratrol specifically improved the endothelial function in patients with MetS.

D’Archivio et al. [ 49 ] highlighted the possible influence of the matrix sugar content on resveratrol bioavailability, since bioavailability appears to be higher for the aglycone form in comparison to its glycosides in grape juice.

Wang et al. [ 50 ] demonstrated that trans -resveratrol is rapidly metabolized by glucuronidation and/or sulfation reactions as well as by hydrogenation of the aliphatic double bond, probably mediated by intestinal bacterial metabolism.

Regarding its bioactivity, trans -resveratrol may represent a promising dietary supplement and is currently proposed as a therapeutic agent for many diseases [ 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 ].

2.2. Flavonoids

Flavonoids are plant-derived phytochemicals with antioxidant properties that account for over 85% of the phenolic components in red wine [ 56 ]. Flavonoids share a common basic structure consisting of a three-ring system with a central oxygen-containing ring (C ring) [ 57 ]. The substitution of the central pyran ring and the different oxidation degree are responsible for their chemical diversity [ 58 ]. On the basis of these differences, the flavonoids comprise a wide range of compounds such as flavones, flavonols, flavanols, anthocyanidins, and anthocyanins [ 59 ]. Natural flavonoids can exist in their free form (aglycone) or as glycosides condensed with the hydroxyl group of a sugar such as glucose, galactose, rhamnose, glucuronide, xylose, and arabinose [ 60 ]. They are widely distributed primarily in vegetables, seeds, nuts, spices, herbs, cocoa, and grape skin. The total level of flavonoids can vary from 150 mg/L to 650 mg/L

Over the last decade, a large amount of experimental and epidemiological investigations has supported the protective effect of flavonoids on cardiovascular and chronic degenerative diseases [ 61 , 62 ]. The cardioprotective effects ascribed to flavonoids against atherosclerosis development might be due to the ability of flavonoids to improve the lipid profiles and reduce insulin resistance and oxidative stress, especially of LDL-C, as suggested by several studies [ 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 ].

2.2.1. Flavones

Flavones display three functional groups i.e., hydroxy and carbonyl groups and conjugated double bonds between C2 and C3 in the flavonoid skeleton. These compounds were found in grape skin and wine in both aglycones and glycosides forms. In grapes, luteolin is the only flavone, present in levels ranging from 0.2 to 1 mg/L [ 67 , 68 , 69 ]. Flavones are known to have a wide range of important biological properties including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-tumor activities and are also used as supplements in the treatment of CHD and neurodegenerative disorders [ 70 ].

Li et al. [ 71 ] investigated the cardioprotective properties of total flavone administrations of Choerospondias axillaries (from 75.0 to 300.0 mg/kg) in a rat model of ischemia–reperfusion (I/R). The results indicated that flavones intake was able to reduce heart pathologic lesions and improve the cardiac function by increasing antioxidative activities.

2.2.2. Flavan-3-ols

Flavanols are benzopyrans that include simple monomeric and polymeric forms which are contained in noteworthy concentrations in red wine. The most important flavanols in grape are catechin and its enantiomer epicatechin, biosynthetic precursors of proanthocyanidins, which are responsible for the structure and astringency of wine [ 56 ]. The catechin and epicatechin levels in red wine were reported to range from −50 to 120 mg/L [ 32 , 68 , 69 ]. Moreover, catechin levels to 1000 mg/L were recorded especially in selected old red wines [ 49 ].

Several studies indicate that flavan-3-ols may exert cardioprotective actions, which might be due to the ability of flavan-3-ols to increase nitric oxide (NO) bioactivity and decrease superoxide production [ 72 ]. Ramirez-Sanchez et al. [ 73 ] studied the possible stimulation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) by epicatechin, an enzyme that generates the vasoprotective molecule NO in human coronary endothelial cells. The results showed that acute administration of epicatechin may induce eNOS activation in endothelial cells.

2.2.3. Flavonols

Flavonols are often characterized by a hydroxyl group in C3 (3-hydroxyflavones), thus being often named 3-hydroxyflavones. Flavonols found in red wine include aglycons such as myricetin, quercetin, kaempferol, and rutin and their respective glycosides which can be glucosides, glucuronides, galactosides, and diglycosides. These main flavonols can be found at a total concentration ranging from 12.7 to 130 mg/L [ 67 , 68 , 69 ]. These compounds are known to play a wide range of biological activities and are considered the main active compounds within the flavonoids group [ 74 ].

Annapurna et al. [ 75 ] investigated the cardioprotective actions of quercetin and rutin (from 5 to 10 mg/kg) in both normal and diabetic rats. Quercetin and rutin intake showed a protective effect in I/R-induced myocardial infarction in normal as well as diabetic rats. Therefore, it was concluded that quercetin and rutin protection could be due to an increased antioxidant activity.

2.2.4. Anthocyanins

Anthocyanin is the glycosylated form of the so-called anthocyanidin. The general molecular structure of anthocyanins is based on the flavilium or 2-phenylbenzopyrilium cation, with hydroxyl and methoxyl groups are present at different positions of the basic structure. The great variety of anthocyanins found in nature is defined by the number and position of hydroxylated groups and the number and the position of conjugated sugar and acyl moieties in their structure [ 32 ]. Anthocyanins, namely, malvidin, cyanidin, delphinidin, petunidin, peonidin, and pelargonidin, have been detected in both grape and red wine at levels ranging from 90 to 400 ng/mL [ 76 , 77 , 78 ]. Anthocyanins are usually found in their glucosyde forms, but rhamnose, xylose, and galactose have also been observed as common sugar moieties. Anthocyanins are also found with acyl substituents bound to sugars, aliphatic acids, and cinnamic acids.

An ever-expanding amount of scientific evidence supports a protective role of habitual dietary intake of anthocyanins against age-related chronic conditions including CHD [ 79 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 83 ].

McCullough et al. [ 84 ] investigated the association between flavonoid intake and risk of death from CHD in a cohort study of 98,469 participants. The results confirmed that anthocyanidins and proanthocyanidins are associated with lower CHD risk, concluding that food sources rich in flavonoids should be considered for CHD risk reduction.

Similarly, Cassidy et al. [ 85 ] evaluated the relationship between intake of different flavonoid classes and multiple inflammatory biomarkers assessed in combination by an inflammation score (IS) in a cohort study of 2375 participants. The results showed that higher intakes of anthocyanins were inversely associated with reductions of the IS score (73%).

Huang et al. [ 86 ] studied the most common red wine anthocyanins, malvidin-3-glucoside and malvidin-3-galactoside, to evaluate their effect on the inflammatory response in endothelial cells. An anti-inflammatory effect was shown by both malvidin-3-glucoside and malvidin-3-galactoside, and a synergistic effect of the two compounds was also found.

Anthocyanins represent promising molecules for the development of therapeutic agents to prevent chronic inflammation in many diseases.

2.2.5. Tannins

Tannins are another important subgroup of phenols present in red wine that contribute to astringency and are also implicated in reactions that lead to browning, especially in white wines. They can be classified into two main classes, namely, hydrolyzable and condensed tannins. The latter forms, polymers of flavan-3-ol without sugar residues, are predominant in grape and wine, while hydrolyzable tannins are naturally present in oak barrels. The total content of tannins ranges from 1.1 to 3.4 g/L [ 78 , 87 ].

In vivo studies carried out in animals and humans suggest that tannins possess potent antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and radical scavenging activity able to promote benefits to human health [ 88 , 89 ].

2.2.6. Hydrolyzable tannins

The basic unit of hydrolyzable tannins are represented by gallic and ellagic acids usually esterified with glucose or related sugars. They are more susceptible to hydrolysis than condensed tannins induced by pH changes and enzymatic or non-enzymatic processes. On the basis of the type of phenolic acid present in their structure, hydrolyzable tannins can be divided in gallotannins and ellagitannins, usually found as a mixture in plant sources. The hydrolyzable tannins are not found in grapes but are extracted from barrels wood during wine aging and are thus proposed in the literature as a marker of maturity for this type of wine. As a result of differences in the aging process and type of wood, the final content of hydrolyzable tannins can strongly vary from 0.4 to 50 mg/L [ 78 , 90 , 91 , 92 , 93 ].

2.2.7. Condensed tannins

Condensed tannins (or proanthocyanidins) are oligomer flavonoids that contribute to astringency in wine. The depolymerization of the condensed tannins under oxidative conditions leads to the formation of proanthocyanidins. Flavan-3-ols and their precursor flavan-3,4-diols (leucoanthocyanidin) are the main components of condensed tannins in nature and can be found at concentrations levels from 1.2 to 3.3 g/L [ 78 , 87 ].

3. Factors Influencing Bioactive Compounds and Composition of Wine

The genetic factors (variety) of grapes and the vinification conditions are considered the main factors that influence the wine polyphenolic composition [ 32 ]. Moreover, some studies have shown that other different variables can also act on grapes phenolic accumulation [ 97 , 98 ]. The agroecological factors that mostly influence the quali–quantitative polyphenol content of the grapes can be summarized in the geographic origin of grapes, the climatic and soil conditions, the exposure to diseases, and the degree of ripeness [ 99 ]. In red wine production, the methods of winemaking (maceration, fermentation, clarification, aging, etc.) and the processing operations (ionic exchange, filtration, centrifugation) can modify significantly the composition and the concentration of phenolic compounds [ 100 , 101 ]. Moreover, during wine maturation and aging, the concentration of monomeric phenols present in wine declines constantly, while complex and stable molecules derived from the condensation of catechins, anthocyanins, and proanthocyanidin are formed [ 101 , 102 ]. Consequently, the polyphenolic composition of grapes differs from that of their corresponding wines. Some of the reactions occurring during the winemaking process are enzymatic oxidation, electrophilic substitution, complexation, and hydrolysis [ 103 , 104 ]. Moreover, new polyphenolic compounds may also be present in wine for environmental reasons like aging in oak barrels, which promotes the extraction of low-molecular-weight phenolic compounds such as flavonoids and of hydrolyzable tannins, modifying the organoleptic characteristics as well as the health impact of a wine [ 105 ].

4. Putative Mechanisms of Action

A large number of epidemiological studies and meta-analysis have consistently shown that light–moderate drinking of red wine has a protective effect against CHD [ 106 , 107 ]. Several plausible underlying biological mechanisms have been postulated to explain the beneficial effects of light–moderate red wine consumption as well as of the phenolic compounds contained in red wine on the development of CHD and atherosclerosis [ 108 , 109 ]. Understanding the mechanisms by which light–moderate drinking of red wine improves the cardiovascular function is crucial for the treatment and prevention of CHD.

4.1. Lipid Profile

Epidemiological studies have consistently shown associations between hyperlipidemia and risk of developing CHD, obesity, and T2D. Light–moderate drinking of alcohol, especially red wine, is associated with beneficial changes in lipid homeostasis, as shown by the results of several clinical trials and meta-analyses.

Da Luz et al. [ 110 ] evaluated the association between moderate red wine consumption and changes in HDL-C levels and in the coronary vasculature. The study included 205 subjects (101 and 104 drinkers and abstainers, respectively) aged around 60 years. Red wine drinkers displayed an HDL-C level significantly higher than the abstainers and a protective effect on coronary lesions.

Marques-Vidal et al. [ 111 ] had similar results in a large cohort. The study included 5409 subjects categorized as abstainers (0 drinks/week, n = 1463), moderate alcohol drinkers (1–13 drinks/week, n = 2972), high alcohol drinkers (14–34 drinks/week, n = 867), and very high alcohol drinkers (≥35 drinks/week, n = 107). The results showed that alcohol consumption increased HDL-C levels rather than polyphenols in light moderate drinkers and partly explained the cardioprotective effect displayed by alcohol consumption.

These results were corroborated by Park et al., [ 112 ] who investigated the benefits of moderate consumption of alcohol in a hypertensive population with a focus on the lipid profile. The study included 2014 participants aged 20–69 years. The results showed that alcohol consumption was negatively associated with prevalence of low HDL-C, whereas the amount of triglycerides increased with a higher alcohol intake.

Magnus et al. [ 113 ] investigated the hypothesis that moderate alcohol intake exerts its cardioprotective function by increasing HDL-C levels with a cohort study of 149,729 participants. The results showed that increasing HDL-C levels is not a relevant mechanism by which ethanol exerts its cardioprotective effect.

A recent meta-analysis [ 114 ] examined the effect of moderate alcohol consumption on lipid profile, concluding that alcohol consumption significantly increased the levels of HDL-C, apolipoprotein A1, and adiponectin. Moreover, the results showed that alcohol did not significantly changed triglycerides levels.

The findings above-reported support an increase in the plasma HDL-C concentration level as a result of chronic, moderate alcohol consumption. Higher HDL levels have been consistently observed in cohort studies regarding alcohol consumption and attributed to alcohol itself. In fact, alcohol, rather than polyphenols, appears to be responsible for the increase of plasma HDL in wine light–moderate drinkers. Table 2 summarizes these studies. The studies that showed positive changes of lipid metabolism, except for HDL-C, as a consequence of light–moderate drinking of alcohol were inconclusive, especially cross-sectional studies where some outcome had a longer half-life time than those analyzed [ 115 ]. On the other hand, the effects of light–moderate drinking of alcohol, including red wine, on triglycerides, LDL, very low density lipoproteins (VLDL), and lipoprotein (a) are unclear and still under debate [ 116 ].

Summary of studies assessing the relationship between moderate alcohol consumption and lipid profile. HDL-C: high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol.

4.2. Glucose Metabolism

The cardioprotective effect of red wine consumption may partly be explained by the association between moderate red wine consumption and a lower incidence of T2D.

Chiva-Blanch et al. [ 115 ] showed that moderate consumption of red wine (30 g of alcohol per day) and dealcoholized red wine decreased the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance values (HOMA-IR) and plasma insulin after 4 weeks in 67 men at high cardiovascular risk. These results suggest that the beneficial effects could be mediated by antioxidant compounds present in red wine, while alcohol did not seem fundamental to obtain such effects.

Brasnyó et al. [ 117 ] investigated the effects of low doses of resveratrol (2 × 5 mg/day) on glucose metabolism in 19 T2D patients. After 4 weeks, resveratrol improved insulin resistance and increased the phosphorylation of protein kinase B (AKT), which plays a key role in insulin signaling by interfering directly with glycogen synthesis. Therefore, it was concluded that resveratrol might be used for medicinal application.

Da Luz et al. [ 118 ] evaluated the association of moderate red wine consumption with changes in glucose levels and diabetes. The study included 205 subjects (101 and 104 drinkers and abstainers, respectively) aged around 60 years. Red wine drinkers displayed a significantly lower incidence of diabetes and lower glucose levels compared to abstainers.

A recent meta-analysis [ 119 ] of 20 cohort studies comprising 477,200 subjects confirmed the U-shaped relationship between moderate amounts of alcohol consumption and risk of incident T2D for both sexes compared with lifetime abstainers. The amount of alcohol that showed higher protective effects was 22 g/day for men and 24 g/day for woman, while over 60 and 50 g/day of alcohol were deleterious for men and women, respectively. Therefore, in this study, the amount of polyphenols was not considered, and the protective effect was attributed to alcohol.

The cardioprotective effects of moderate alcohol consumption were corroborated by Mekary et al. [ 120 ] through a large prospective study including 81,827 participants on the impact of alcohol consumption and the positive association between glycemic load (GL) and the incidence of T2D. They found that a high alcohol intake (≥15 g/day) attenuated the effect of GL on T2D incidence.

Ramadori et al. [ 121 ] conducted a study on diet-induced obese and diabetic mice to evaluate the impact of approximately 79.2 ng/day intracerebroventricular infusion of resveratrol on glucose metabolism. The results showed a normalized hyperglycemia and improved hyperinsulinemia by the activation of SIRT 1 expressed in the brain. Table 3 summarizes these studies.

Summary of studies assessing the impact of red wine consumption on glucose metabolism. HOMA-IR: homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance, T2D: type-2 diabetes, GL: glycemic load.

These findings suggest that a light to moderate alcohol consumption, especially with red wine, may be associated with improved insulin resistance and with a lower incidence of diabetes, providing another potential explanation for the reduction of cardiovascular events associated with moderate alcohol intake.

4.3. Oxidative Stress

Many important cardioprotective effects of wine polyphenols can be attributed to their capacity to react with reactive nitrogen species (RNS) or to interfere with RNS production. Wine polyphenols are well recognized as potent antioxidant compounds and radical scavengers of peroxynitrite, a reactive substance produced by the reaction between NO and the superoxide anion [ 122 , 123 ]. The inverse association between red wine consumption and mortality from cardiovascular diseases may be explained by the capacity of red wine polyphenols to reduce LDL oxidation [ 124 ]. These findings showed that the beneficial effects on LDL oxidation could be exerted by a higher antioxidant activity of red wine compared to beverages with no polyphenolic content.

Estruch et al. [ 125 ] studied the benefits of moderate consumption of red wine compared to gin, an alcoholic beverage without polyphenolic content, on the lag phase time of LDL particles. The study was conducted with 40 healthy men aged 38 years, concluding that after 28 days of moderate consumption of red wine (30 g/day). Compared to gin, red wine intake increased up to 11.0 min the lag phase time of LDL oxidation, probably due to its high polyphenolic content.

Similarly, Chiva et al. [ 126 ] checked the effects of alcoholic and dealcoholized red wine and gin intake on plasma NO and blood pressure in 67 subjects at high cardiovascular risk. After 4 weeks, the results showed that dealcoholized red wine was able to decrease systolic and diastolic blood pressure and increase plasma NO concentration.

Egert et al. [ 127 ] evaluated changes in markers of oxidative stress following quercetin intake in 93 overweight or obese subjects aged 25–65 years. Quercetin is an important flavonoid present in high amounts in red wine and grapes. After 6 weeks, 150 mg/day of quercetin supplementation significantly decreased the plasma concentrations of oxidized LDL. Therefore, it was concluded that quercetin may provide protection against CHD.

Bulut et al. [ 128 ] evaluated the effects of alcoholic (red wine and liquor) and non-alcoholic (mineral water and Coke) beverages consumed during a high-fat meal once a week for 4 weeks on circulating microparticles (MPs) in 10 healthy males. Volunteers in the red wine and liquor groups consumed the same amount of alcohol. The results indicated that the number of MPs increased after a single high-fat meal (increase by about 62%), but red wine consumption decreased these negative effects (increase by about 5%). Table 4 summarizes these studies.

Summary of studies assessing the impact of red wine consumption on oxidative stress. LDL: low-density lipoprotein.

These findings support that moderate red wine consumption may act as an antioxidant by decreasing oxidized LDL plasma levels and increasing plasma NO concentration. Scientific evidence indicates that oxidized LDL may play a major role in the onset and progression of oxidative stress-associated diseases, such as atherosclerosis [ 129 , 130 ]. Moreover, increased oxidized LDL plasma levels were predictive of future myocardial infarction [ 131 ]. Nevertheless, the beneficial effects of moderate red wine consumption on LDL oxidation seem to be independent of its alcohol component.

5. Conclusions

In the last decades, several human and animal studies have indicated that moderate red wine consumption has beneficial effects on health. Phenolic compounds present in red wine have shown antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, being able to reduce insulin resistance and to exert a beneficial effect by decreasing oxidative stress. As a consequence, a clear effect on the reduction of risk factors and the prevention of cardiovascular diseases have been observed. Different mechanisms are involved in the cardioprotective effects of moderate red wine consumption: while alcohol appears to be responsible for increasing plasma HDL-C, the polyphenolic component may play a key role in the reduction of T2D incidence and LDL oxidation. In light of these considerations, a moderate intake of red wine may produce cardioprotective effects. However, more in-depth knowledge is required in order to understand the molecular basis of the potential mechanisms involved.

Acknowledgments

The authors express sincere appreciation to Ph.D. Sirignano Carmina for her technical support.

Author Contributions

G.D.M. and A.R. designed the review; A.G., G.G., and L.I. analyzed the bibliography; L.C. and A.N. wrote the paper.

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Research aims to improve wine production, quality nationwide

With 85% of wine production taking place in California, what happens when drier growing seasons and increased threats of wildfires impact the state’s ability to continue that high production level?

Aude Watrelot, assistant professor of food science and human nutrition and extension enology specialist at Iowa State University, is leading a project to better understand the challenges faced by wine industry professionals across the U.S. The results of the project aim to improve future regional wine production.

“With everything that’s going on in the U.S. every year, water will become a struggle to find, and diseases and pests are continuous threats,” Watrelot said. “At some point, new practices need to be put in place to handle the changing growing conditions and make growing and producing wine grapes in all parts of the U.S. more viable.”

The challenge with grape and wine production in the Midwest and Northeastern U.S. is that cold-hardy grape varieties grown in these regions have a different flavor profile and acidity that consumers are not used to. Through this project, Watrelot and the other researchers hope to discover ways grape growers and wine producers can adjust their wines to meet consumer expectations – and help consumers better appreciate wines.

There’s also an opportunity to promote the benefits of purchasing locally produced wines.

“I think that’s where we need to educate consumers more and really push the topics of sustainability and local production. What environmental impacts does bringing in wines from other countries have and how can the industry become more sustainable and resilient?” Watrelot said.

The project, which included researchers from eight states, began in October 2023. It involved distributing a survey to wine industry professionals – grape growers, winery owners, winemakers and marketing/sales managers – across the U.S. The survey asked participants three things:

• What challenges are they facing?
• What needs to be done to address those challenges?
• What resources are needed to manage those challenges?

The challenges were categorized into three areas: viticulture (the growing of grapes), enology (the study of winemaking and wines)/winery, and business management. The top three national challenges per area of focus, as voiced by survey respondents were:

• Viticulture: disease management, pest management, environment and climate
• Enology/winery: management of production costs, microbial spoilage, wine acidity
• Business management: wine distribution beyond the winery or tasting rooms, learning about winery visitor profiles, consumers’ evolving preferences for alcoholic beverages

“It was interesting to see that all regions of the U.S. have to deal with the challenges of pest and disease management in the vineyards and microbial spoilage management in the wineries,” Watrelot said. “These challenges are common and unique at the same time but seem to all be the result of climate change.”

In the Midwest, the top challenge of viticulture was the environment/climate such as cold hardiness, and the top challenge of enology was wine acidity management.

As a follow-up to the survey, the researchers also conducted focus groups with wine industry representatives in each of the four regions of the U.S. (West, Midwest, Northeast, South), digging deeper into the data from the survey responses. The findings were shared at a strategic planning meeting organized before the American Society for Enology and Viticulture – Eastern Section conference in July.

The researchers are continuing to analyze the data and plan to use the results as background for a larger grant to further the project, set to end in August 2025.

Cain Hickey, assistant teaching professor of viticulture at Penn State, was the project co-director alongside Watrelot.

“It is nice to get feedback about challenges from the grape/wine industry stakeholders we serve and to understand the unique and similar issues across the diverse grape growing regions of the U.S.,” Hickey said. “We will leverage these findings and use them to partially inform research and education direction of a future grant we will apply for.”

Funding for this research came from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Specialty Crop Research Initiative Research and Extension Planning grant.

Aude Watrelot, Food Science and Human Nutrition, 515-294-0343, [email protected]

Whitney Baxter, Agriculture and Life Sciences Communications, 515-294-2314, [email protected]