Although wines contain hundreds odor-active chemical, only a few dozen are above their odor threshold and the processes of suppression and the limit on the number of odorants humans can recognize in mixtures implies that only a few inform our odor images. Among those few some odorants appear to dominate at peri-threshold levels, TDN (1,1,6-trimethyl-1,2-dihydronapathalene) in Riesling, 4MMP (4-methyl-4-mercaptopentanone) and 3MH (3-mercaptohexanol) in Sauvignon Blanc and TCA (2,4,6-trichloroanisole) as it contaminates many wines, are examples of odorants that suppress more than others. It is not known how specific these powerful suppressors are, i.e. do they suppress all odorants to the same extent. Using sniff olfactometry similar and dissimilar odorants found in wine were studied in binary mixtures to determine their power to suppress. Clearly some compounds, β-damascenone for example, are less powerful suppressors. The nature of their binary suppression of key odorants in wine and their implications for odor image formation will be discussed.

Relating chemical measurements of wine to olfactory perceptions

254th National Meeting (2017)

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