Looking for temporal changes in the sensory features of dry wines underlying the Grand Gold awards in international wine challenges

Wine appreciation is subject to trends, dependent on wine sensory properties. The wines characterized by high ethanol content, deep colour, and dominated by oak notes have given way to less alcoholic and leaner styles. Nevertheless, these changes are only supported by anecdotal evidence. Therefore, the purpose of this work was to evaluate the differences in the most preferred wine styles. The scores of Grand Gold dry red and white wines were obtained from the online data of Mundus Vini challenge. The older period ranged from 2014 to 2016, while the most recent editions ranged from 2020 to 2023. The profile of red wines was synthesized in four sensory spaces, comprising Oakiness, Harshness, Freshness, and Funkiness. Overall, most preferred wines continued to have high ethanol content and high body, and were dominated by Oakiness. The main difference was related to the higher proportion of Funkiness in the wines from the more recent editions. A relatively small number of white wines were awarded Grand Gold in the latest editions. These wines were characterized by the sensory spaces of Freshness, Mellowed, Oakiness, and Funkiness. The main difference was related to the higher proportion of Oakiness in the more recent editions. Overall, the temporal analysis of Grand Gold wines did not show a significant variation in their style, continuing to be characterized by bold wines with high ethanol content, residual sugar and oak wood flavours.