Influence of the sociocultural perspective on the sensory perception of wine consumers in Mexico and Spain

Abstract

The increasing globalization of companies and markets, including the wine market, makes this study important as a cultural comparison between the sensory perception of wine in Mexico and Spain. Eighty consumers were selected with different consumption habits, and hedonic (Acceptance and Simple Preference) and descriptive (Word Association Task and the Check-All-That-Apply (CATA) method) sensory tests were performed. The results revealed that there were differences in the conceptualization of wine in the Word Association Task. Both populations preferred wines of Spanish origin over those of Mexican origin, especially in the case of red wine. Finally, the results of the CATA method showed that the attributes that discriminate the two types of wine are due more to the country origin of the tasters than to the samples. Spanish consumers used cultural and tradition descriptors and were stricter when it came to sensory evaluation. Moreover, Spanish participants demonstrated more ability to differentiating all wines in terms of visual, olfactory and taste aspects.