Smell training increases cognitive smell skills of wine tasters compared to the general healthy population. The WINECAT Study.

BACKGROUND Wine experts show higher accuracy than novices in selecting a wine that matches a sample. Only one study has compared wine experts with non-trained healthy controls on smell. The aim of this study was to compare the smell characteristics, both sensorial and cognitive, of wine tasters with Spanish healthy population using the Barcelona Smell Test-24. METHODS Wine tasters were tested for smell and compared with a control group of healthy volunteers, by tasting 20 odours and scoring smell detection, identification, intensity, irritability, freshness, pleasure and forced choice. RESULTS Wine tasters performed significantly better on identification and forced choice than healthy controls. In addition, wine tasters perceived more odours as intense, but fewer as irritating than controls. CONCLUSIONS Probably linked to smell education, wine tasters show better cognitive but not sensorial smell skills than a non-trained healthy population.

[1]  K. White,et al.  Demystifying wine expertise: olfactory threshold, perceptual skill and semantic memory in expert and novice wine judges. , 2002, Chemical senses.

[2]  W. Cain,et al.  Determinants of measured olfactory sensitivity , 1986, Perception & psychophysics.

[3]  G. Solomon.  Psychology of novice and expert wine talk , 1990 .

[4]  M. D. Rabin.  Experience facilitates olfactory quality discrimination , 1988, Perception & psychophysics.

[5]  Joaquim Mullol,et al.  Barcelona Smell Test - 24 (BAST-24): validation and smell characteristics in the healthy Spanish population. , 2006, Rhinology.

[6]  T. Hummel,et al.  Influence of simultaneous gustatory stimuli on orthonasal and retronasal olfaction , 2009, Neuroscience Letters.

[7]  R. Boakes,et al.  Passive perceptual learning in relation to wine: short-term recognition and verbal description. , 2009, Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[8]  B Berglund,et al.  Environmentally Induced Changes in Sensory Sensitivities a , 1992, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[9]  C. Wysocki,et al.  Induction of olfactory receptor sensitivity in mice. , 1993, Science.

[10]  Miguelina Guirao,et al.  PERFORMANCE COMPARISON BETWEEN TRAINED ASSESSORS AND WINE EXPERTS USING SPECIFIC SENSORY ATTRIBUTES , 2004 .

[11]  T. Hummel,et al.  Olfactory sensitivity of subjects working in odorous environments. , 2004, Chemical senses.

[12]  T. Hummel,et al.  Olfactory disorders: the patients' view. , 2009, Rhinology.

[13]  D. G. Laing,et al.  Influence of training and experience on the perception of multicomponent odor mixtures. , 1996, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[14]  A. Holley,et al.  Odor discrimination and recognition memory as a , 1995, Perception & psychophysics.

[15]  S. Nordin,et al.  Perceptual Learning in Olfaction Professional Wine Tasters versus Controls , 1997, Physiology & Behavior.

[16]  J. Schooler,et al.  The Misremembrance of Wines Past: Verbal and Perceptual Expertise Differentially Mediate Verbal Overshadowing of Taste Memory , 1996 .

[17]  R. Boakes,et al.  Perceptual and cognitive aspects of wine expertise , 2001 .

[18]  W. Moody,et al.  Evidence for a peripheral olfactory memory in imprinted salmon. , 1994, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.