Perceived complexity in wine: what is it?

Abstract

It has been argued that complexity has become an often-used but vague term that gives a wine a distinction and a status. So, when we describe a wine as having “complexity”, what do we mean? What does a complex wine have that a less-complex wine does not have? Are wine consumers and wine professionals (e.g., oenologists, wine-makers, and wine critics) all talking about the same thing when attributing complexity to a wine? And what is the relation between perceived complexity in a wine and perceived wine aging potential? These are some of the questions investigated in a collaborative research programme involving sensory scientists at Lincoln University in New Zealand and the University of Paris VIII in Paris, France.