The Taste of Pesticides in Wines

1. Abstract A very first description of the tastes of 11 pesticides is proposed. They are detected first in water, diluted freshly at the levels found in wines, by 36 professionals from wine or cooking in 195 blind tests at different periods. They are the most frequently found pesticides in wines in our experiment. Some animals can detect pesticides and change their behaviour in response. In order to find out if humans can also detect pesticides by their taste in wines, a three-step experiment was conducted. First, 16 pairs of organic and non-organic bottles of wine were identified in 7 regions. The same varieties of grapes in each pair were grown on the same soils (in neighbouring vineyards), in the same climate and in the same year. The resulting wines were assessed for over 250 pesticides. Traces were present only in one organic bottle. In contrast, 4686 ppb were detected in total in non-organic bottles, with only 2 samples at 0 and a mean of 293 ± 270[0-1144] ppb reached by up to 6 pesticides-mostly fungicides and one glyph sate-based herbicide. Secondly, 195 blind tests with 71 different professionals were conducted at different periods. In 77% of the cases, organic wines were preferred. The same pesticides alone or in mixtures were diluted in water at the levels present in wines. At least one pesticide of the mixture was identified as such because it was judged to taste different from water in blind tests: this held true in 85% of cases in which answers were offered by the professionals (147), and 58% recognized them all. Among the experts who detected pesticides, 57% identified the wine containing the mout of the pair of bottles. To our knowledge, this experiment is the first where humans can identify pesticides by taste.