The impact of geographic origin, vintage and wine estate on sensory properties of Vitis vinifera cv. Riesling wines

The official quality designation for German wines is solely based on the de gree of ripeness in grapes, while most other wine producing countries in Eu rope rely on a geographic classification system. A descriptive analysis (DA ) investigated the sensory properties of commercial Riesling wines from two vintages, five wine estates and six vineyard designations within the vitic ulture region Rheingau. Based on the number of significant F-ratios among 1 0 odor and 4 orally perceived attributes, vintage and wine estate proved to have a similar impact as vineyard designation. Principal component analysi s revealed substantial variations within the same vineyard designation and demonstrated the strong impact of the individual wine estate and vintage. H ence, a classification system focusing on geographic origin alone would be rather confusing for consumers, because wines differ substantially regardin g their sensory appearance within the same vineyard designation. (C) 1999 E lsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.