Browsing by Author "Brand, Jeanne"
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- Cultural differences in wine conceptualization among consumers in France, Portugal and South AfricaPublication . Fairbairn, Samantha; Brand, Jeanne; Ferreira, Antonio Silva; Valentin, Dominique; Bauer, FlorianConsumers’ mental pictures of wine are multifaceted and are shaped by their sensory (taste, smell, visual, sensation) perceptions, in addition to emotional, cultural and extrinsic (brand, price, and awards) influences. This study explores whether consumers from three different wine cultures share mental representations of three wine concepts. Through an online survey, French, Portuguese, and South African wine consumers described their conceptualizations of Wine, Red wine and White wine aroma. Given these nations’ rich winemaking traditions and diverse wine styles, differences in consumer perspectives were likely to emerge. The findings demonstrate that, regardless of cultural background, the broad concept of Wine aligns with the more specific Red and White wine conceptualizations, although the latter concepts diverge from each other. Notably, cultural contexts significantly influence participants’ representations of Red Wine, with particularly marked contrasts between the South African and French respondents. This suggests that like experts, wine consumers have also built representations of wine through semantic memory. This cross-cultural analysis of consumer interpretations of wine concepts holds the potential for refining marketing strategies to overcome cultural barriers in wine purchasing behaviour.
- Yeast metabolic activity is sufficient to create a wine like aromatic feature in a synthetic grape must — a sensory-driven approachPublication . Fairbairn, Samantha C.; Monforte, Ana Rita; Brand, Jeanne; Ferreira, António C. Silva; Bauer, Florian F.Wine is characterised by an underlying aromatic volatile profile, which allows human subjects to easily recognise the product as “wine” by smell alone. Yeast metabolism significantly contributes to wine organoleptic properties, and some yeast metabolism-derived compounds contribute to the vinous character of wine. However, the relative contribution of yeast and grape-derived metabolic compounds to the sensory perception of a product as “wine-like” remains unexamined. This study explores the possibility of creating a wine-like aroma by yeast metabolic activity alone. For this purpose, we fermented a simple synthetic media without any grape-derived aromatic compounds or precursors thereof. Fermentation products were evaluated for the degree of wine-like sensory perception. The synthetic grape juice nitrogen, sterol and fatty acid composition were altered to improve the recognition of this character. Initial fermentations resulted in products that were not recognised as wine-like, but over several reiterations, more wine-like associations were observed, with some products judged as similar to real wine. The data suggest that the wine-like character responsible for the recognition of a product as “wine” is largely the result of the de novo synthesis of aromatic compounds by yeast and does not require the contribution of grape-derived volatile compounds.