Discerning Wine Astringency Sub-Qualities by Tribological Approaches in a Model System—What Is the Role of Saliva?

Astringency is an important indicator of wine sensory quality. As a complex sensation that the loss of in-mouth lubrication is recognised as an important mechanism, astringency can be perceived as a set of different sub-qualities. In addition to sensory evaluations, chemical approaches measuring interactivity of astringents-proteins have provide ways of astringency quantification, but they do not capture how specific wine components elicit those sub-qualities. In this study, we developed several tribological approaches, which considered saliva interactions, in an effort to explore if any salivary lubrication change is linked to different sensorily perceived wine astringency sub-qualities. In model wine systems with defined matrix compositions, we found that model wines with equivalent responses in chemical assay for astringency possessed various astringency sub-qualities. In particular, the sub-quality drying corresponded to samples exhibiting higher boundary friction. High-acidity matrix induced pucker, which is found to be independent of drying. It was also linked to a faster salivary film collapse. The rough seemed to be a secondary astringency sub-quality combining drying and pucker, because these 2 sensations were found either elicit rough independently. Polysaccharide reduced the drying in a low-tannin-high-acidity matrix. This is the first study demonstrating that astringency sub-qualities are likely to have different perceptive mechanisms by using tribological measures. The outcomes would provide insights into employing those tools to help manage wine matrix to attain preferable mouthfeels and astringency characteristics.