Chemical Analysis and Sensory Evaluation of Commercial Red Wines in Korea

The sensory characteristics of imported (two dry, two sweet, and one medium dry wines) and domestic (one sweet wine) red wine were evaluated by 250 panels. The preferences of aroma, color, sweetness, tartness, astringency, and overall acceptability were determined by 5-point just-about-right scale. Among six wines, B sample obtained the highest mean overall acceptability score of 3.67 and its chemical and sensory characteristics were as follow: cherry or strawberry aroma, 9.4 brix, 3.7% of sugar content, pH 3.5, 10% of ethanol, 0.14% of tannin, 5.74 mg/mL of total organic acids, and color of , , and . These results revealed that Korean consumers generally prefer sweet taste to dry one, flat taste to bitter one, and fruity aroma to others. Panels preferred a red wine containing high sugar content of . On the other hand, panels showed low preference to the wine containing tannin above 0.16%. However, these general trends were slightly varied depending on their ages and consuming frequencies.