EFFECTS OF MALOLACTIC FERMENTATION ON SENSORY PROPERTIES OF 4 BURGUNDY WINES

The Burgundy wines studied for this paper were made with Chardonnay an d Pinot noir grapes harvested in 1991 and 1992 and evaluated in May 19 94. When examining the results of triangle tests (12 judges, 4 repetit ions), the differences between MLF and no-MLF wines were low, but they were significant. As expected, the no-MLF wines, except for the 1991 Pinot, were perceived more acid than the MLF wines. Furthermore, pair tests showed MLF changed the aromatic profile of wines, but only sligh tly. The Chardonnay wines were perceived higher in hazelnut, fresh bre ad, and dried fruit aromas, whereas Pinot noir wines lost part of thei r berry notes in favor of animal and vegetable notes. On the contrary, the absence of MLF kept specific aromas such as apple and grapefruit- orange in Chardonnay and strawberry-raspberry in Pinot noir.