Oxidation in white wine: The point of view of winemakers from areas with different oenological practices

Oxygen is an important parameter in winemaking that can have positive or negative impacts on wine quality. A controlled oxygen management can lead a wine with good potential for ageing to develop an interesting ageing bouquet. On the other hand, when oxygen intake is not well controlled, loss of freshness and fruitiness can occur, and some faulty oxidative notes can appear. Oxidation is thus an ambiguous sensory concept and producers' representation of oxidation in white wine may be very different depending on the oenological practices linked to their geographical areas. The main objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of oenological practices and environment on wine experts' mental representations of oxidation. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with twenty-six French winemakers, half from Burgundy and half from Jura. The results showed that the winemakers from both regions were quite consensual regarding the sensory dimensions associated with oxidation but there were differences between the two regions in terms of which types of oxidation they considered. The idea of premature oxidation was clearly more salient for the Burgundy respondents than for the Jura ones. Our results stress the context-dependent character of oxidation judgement following wine tasting.