Preface

t was a great pleasure for me and all the members of both the Organizing and the Scientific Committees to prepare the Second International Conference on Wine Active Compounds under the auspices of the UNESCO Chair «Culture et Traditions du Vin” and the Jules Guyot Institute at University of Burgundy.

Scientific interests in this field of research are active and they contribute to a better understanding of wine molecules having biological roles and taste/olfactory properties. The contributions gathered in this book provide the most recent advances on these topics.

These proceedings contain 115 peer-reviewed contributions presented in four chapters. It is a real pleasure and an honor to realize that these contributions efficiently cover the different topics proposed for this conference and actually come from all around the world, including almost all of the institutions actively involved in vine and wine research.

The first chapter, comprising the highest number of contributions of this book, focuses on the origin of wine active compounds and on the physicochemical interactions with one another or with solid interfaces related to wine ageing and bottles storage. Besides, contributions on metabolomics approaches for determining the origin of active compounds and the central role of winemaking processes on flavour and health benefit compounds are of particular topical interest.

Wine odour/taste-active compounds have been the subject of intense researches in recent years. The second chapter addresses the fields of perception, cognition and consumer science. It brings together reports on how wine odor/taste-active compound interactions impact consumer perceptions and preferences.

The correlations between wine micro-components and human health undoubtedly give rise to more and more excitement. Recent reports opened a new future for a moderate consumption of wine, and beside the well-known anti-oxidant effect of the numerous polyphenols, there are now potentialities for a nutritional preventive effect. The third chapter stresses on recent research advances in this field.

This second international conference on Wine Active Compounds has ended with a special session on wine consumption and consumer behavior, which gathered the eight communications appearing in the last chapter of this book.

David Chassagne
Co-Coordinator of WAC2011
University of Burgundy
Dijon, March 2011