Taste Group Thresholds and Sensory Evaluation of Spanish Wine Vinegars

Wine vinegar is a product obtained from wine acidification which contains at least 5% by wt. of acetic acid, in general without any additives or colorings. Aspects studied in this work include: the determination of the taste group thresholds (geometric mean of the individual best‐estimate thresholds “BET”) of two different acids (citric and acetic acids) in aqueous solution and spanish vinegars produced from table and sherry wines. The results obtained suggest that wine vinegar can be considered something more than just an acidulant agent. In order to evaluate differences among wine vinegars, discriminant tests for twenty‐five spanish vinegars (sherry, table and flavored vinegars) were applied. Six of the twelve attributes freely chosen by assessors allowed grouping of the spanish wine vinegars according to their sensory aspects.