New Insights into Wine Taste: Impact of Dietary Lipids on Sensory Perceptions of Grape Tannins.

Wine is very often consumed with a meal. However, although it is well known to tasters that the taste of wine changes in the presence of food, the influence of dietary lipids on wine astringency and bitterness caused by grape tannins is not well established from a molecular point of view. In this context, we investigated wine tannin-lipid interactions by combining biophysical techniques to sensory analysis. Nuclear magnetic resonance and optical and electron microscopy showed an interaction between catechin, a majority component of grape tannins, and lipid droplets from a phospholipid-stabilized oil-in-water emulsion, characterized by (a) an increase in the droplet size in the presence of catechin, (b) slowing of their size growth over time, and (c) an increase in lipid dynamics in the droplet interfacial layer. Those results were strengthened by sensory analysis, which demonstrated that dietary oils decrease the perception of astringency of grape tannin solutions. Our results highlight that dietary lipids are crucial molecular agents impacting our sensory perception during wine consumption.