title: Labeling, identification, and recognition of wine-relevant odorants in expert sommeliers, intermediates, and untrained wine drinkers.
abstract: In this study we examined the development of wine expertise. We asked four groups--untrained wine drinkers, second- and third-level trainee sommeliers, and professional sommeliers--to engage in a range of olfactory tasks to assess perceptual and semantic aspects of expertise. These tasks included identification, recognition, and description of a range of domain-specific and common odour stimuli, including wines. Trainee sommeliers were significantly poorer at identification of wine-relevant odours than untrained wine drinkers and professional sommeliers. Trainee and professional sommeliers were, however, significantly better than untrained wine drinkers in a delayed matching-to-sample wine-recognition task, but not in the case of other odorous stimuli. The wine-description task demonstrated a degree of skill, in terms of specificity and quantity of wine-relevant descriptors, as a function of expertise. These results, of one of the first studies of examining wine expertise by a cross-sectional developmental approach, indicate that perceptual aspects of expertise are probably rapidly acquired, being present even in the second- and third-level trainees, while semantic expertise is slower to develop, and may incur time for the identification of wine-specific odorants during training.
authors: Dipartimento di Psicologia Generale, via Venezia 8, 35100 Padua, Italy. zucco@unipd.it
authors: Gesualdo M
authors: GM
authors: Zucco
authors: Aurelio
authors: A
authors: Carassai
authors: Maria Rosa
authors: MR
authors: Baroni
authors: Richard J
authors: RJ
authors: Stevenson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009812:Odorants; D011361:Professional Competence; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012903:Smell; D014920:Wine; D055815:Young Adult