UF Study: Florida-Grown Sparkling Wines Please Palates (UF/IFAS Blogs)

UF Study: Florida-Grown Sparkling Wines Please Palates

Still or sparkling? When it comes to Florida-grown fruit wines, consumers prefer fizzy over flat.

That’s the finding of a recent study from the University of Florida, which shows that taste testers prefer carbonated blueberry and muscadine wines over their non-carbonated versions.

“Tasters’ preferences were most reliably associated with whether or not the wine was carbonated,” said Andrew MacIntosh, senior author of the study and an assistant professor in the UF/IFAS food science and human nutrition department.

Nicholas Wendrick, a student earning his master’s degree in food science and human nutrition from the UF/IFAS College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, is the study’s lead author. The study was conducted at the UF/IFAS Sensory Laboratory, where UF students and members of the public participate in taste panels that evaluate consumer preferences for foods and drinks. Charles Sims, director of the Sensory Lab, is one of the study’s co-authors.

“We tested four different levels of carbonation, but we found that there isn’t one level of carbonation that people overwhelmingly like best,” MacIntosh said. “That’s good news for wineries because they can tailor the level of carbonation to their needs and still provide a value-added product for the consumer.”

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