Sweetness, Sourness, and Total Taste Intensity in Champagne Wine

Fifteen wines, varying in sucrose (0 g/L, 5 g/L, 8 g/L, 12.8 g/L, and 20.5 g/L) and tartaric acid (2.50 g/L, 3.25 g/L, and 4.22 g/L) were prepared according to a full factorial design from an unsweetened base Champagne wine. Ten selected and trained subjects rated sweetness, sourness, and total taste intensity of the entire set of wines in triplicate. The suppressive effect of sucrose on the sourness of tartaric acid was stronger than the suppressive effect of tartaric acid on the sweetness of sucrose. Total taste intensity scores indicated that sucrose and tartaric acid exhibited poor additivity and partially suppressed each other. An integration of sweetness and sourness in the global intensity percept was observed. Sweetness contributed to a greater extent in the judgment of total taste intensity in Champagne wine.