A MAP OF THE AFFECTIVE SEMANTIC SPACE RELATED TO VARIOUS DIFFERENT TYPES OF WINE

Even if there are incidental factors that can modify emotions and attitudes towards foods and beverages (e.g. purchase environment, packaging, mood), some products are more associated with emotional experiences than others. Wine, for example, is an “emotional” product, at least in some cultures including Italy. Previous studies have shown that the lexicon used to describe the affective space of life experiences is not the same as that which is used to describe individual reactions to foods and odours (Delplanque et al., 2012). This also applies to wine (Author, 2010), where the semantic space suffers from “hedonic asymmetry”. This study aimed to select a list of adjectives in Italian to describe different intensities of emotions elicited during the tasting of various wines. 88 wine consumers assessed the intensities of their feelings in a testing situation using a list of 31 adjectives. 23 of these adjectives were selected from past studies on imagined emotions (Author, 2010) associated with wine and 8 were selected from research on the emotions elicited by odours and foods (Chrea et al., 2009; King, Meiselman, 2010). A Visual Analogue Scale was used. The types of wines used as stimuli varied in terms of colour and enological characteristics in order to represent the wide range of products available. While some terms proved to be more useful to describe the tasting experience, others appeared to be especially useful to discriminate between the various different types of wine. This is the first time that there has been evidence that a specific set of terms is needed to report the feelings elicited by wine tasting efficiently. It also supports the hypothesis that specific emotional profiles can be attributed to different types of wine. Emotions elicited by products are becoming more and more important in terms of product differentiation. In the field of wine, emotional profiles, associated with the traditional sensory profiles, can offer useful additional and attractive information. Chrea, C., Grandjean D., Delplanque S., Cayeux I., Le Calvé B., Aymard L., et al. (2009). Mapping the semantic space for the subjective experience of emotional responses to odors. Chemical Senses. 34(1), 49-62. Delplanque, S., Chrea C., Grandjean D., Ferdenzi C., Cayeux I., Porcherot C., et al. (2012). How to map the affective semantic space of scents. Cognition and Emotion. 26(5), 885-898. King S.C., Meiselman H.L. (2010). Development of a method to measure consumer emotions associated with foods. Food Quality and Preference. 21, 168-177.