Sensory evaluation

The wine tasting component included around forty expert assessors and took place from December 2021 to April 2022. Several hundred samples were tasted.

The selected panel was made up of wine professionals : sommeliers, wine makers and other trade experts with at least 10 years of recognized experience in wine tasting. Panelists were then trained on Saint-Émilion wines in the fall of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022. The panel training focused on the evaluation of older vintages. Furthermore, the training put the emphasis on the selection criteria chosen for the ranking of 1st Grand Crus Classés, namely wine aromatic quality, structure and ageing potential.

Tastelweb® powered sensory analysis

Bureau Veritas chose ABT Informatique, publisher of Tastelweb® software --- a tool recognized in the field of sensory analysis and awarded a trophy for innovation at Vinitech/Sifel in December 2022 --- to assist with sensory data & text collection and processing.

“ABT Informatique was particularly present from the start of the first tastings in October 2022 to guide and advise us on the use of their software. ABT Informatique also carried out complimentary ergonomic and adaptation developments at our request. Since most of the wine assessors were accustomed to a paper-based scoring system, we ensured that the tool used on tablets (or smartphones) would not create a source of sensory bias and impact the accuracy of the evaluations.” reveals Mr. Gallet, Project Manager at Bureau Veritas Certification.

For example, the following improvements and customizations were made : check boxes for intensity of perception (- - / - / + / ++) were associated with selected descriptors in order to optimize the readability and understanding of the sensory test questions ; QR codes were put in place to facilitate access to the sensory tests without requiring tasters to enter usernames and passwords ; a palette of more discriminating color choices was also provided to the panel.

The evaluations took place over a period of 5 months, with 2 and 3 sessions per week. The ergonomic design of Tastelweb® was instrumental in overcoming hurdles commonly found during this type of sensory evaluation. For instance, the addition of corked wines was made possible by reactivating an existing tasting sheet. Likewise, sensory data was saved in real time during the tastings thereby providing a contingency plan in the event of power outages. At the end of all the wine evaluation sessions, sensory results were exported to Excel to carry out the data processing necessary to obtain the final wine ranking.

“We appreciated the ease and speed in implementing Tastelweb® considering our constraints with the number of wine tasting sessions, panelists and samples. The context was also very sensitive due to the importance of the wine ranking. This is why we would like to thank warmly ABT Informatique for its support and valuable advice throughout this wine classification project.”

Mr. Gallet, Project Manager at Bureau Veritas Certification France.