Mousiness in wine: an investigation into the effects of repeated exposures and systematic training on wine professionals’ sensitivity to mousiness

Description

Mousiness has become one of the most debated wine faults of recent years. Yet despite its importance for sensory quality assessment, there remains substantial variation among wine professionals in their ability to detect it. Widely cited industry sources have suggested that as many as 25% of wine professionals may be unable to perceive mousiness in wine.

In this presentation, Tone Veseth Furuholmen MW will present the findings of her Master of Wine research paper, which investigated whether repeated exposure and systematic training can influence wine professionals’ sensitivity to mousiness. The study followed 50 wine professionals and focused on detection thresholds for 2-acetyltetrahydropyridine (ATHP), one of the compounds associated with mousy taint.

The session will examine wine professionals’ detection levels before and after exposure, explore the extent to which sensitivity to ATHP may be modified through repeated exposure and training, and discuss what the findings reveal about individual differences in detection of mousiness. It will also consider the sensory descriptors used by wine professionals for ATHP and how these compare with those reported in the scientific literature.

The research contributes to a limited body of work on the sensory perception of mousiness and offers practical implications for wine education, sensory training and professional wine assessment.