If you’re a wine enthusiast wanting to master your tasting skills or…
…..If you’re a wine hospitality professional looking for more actionable consumer insights
You’re in the right place!
I bring sensory and consumer science into the heart of wine hospitality and personal tasting development.
Isabelle Lesschaeve, PhD - Wine Sensory Expert and Founder of InnoVinum
Select below the appropriate path to discover our training programs and consulting services.
Isabelle Lesschaeve, PhD
Founder, Wine Sensory Consultant and Educator
Meet Dr. Isabelle Lesschaeve.
Hi and welcome,
I created in InnoVinum to help wine lovers and wine businesses leverage the power of sensory science in their wine business and education programs.
Being born and raised in a French culture gave me multiple opportunities to learn about wine, but it doesn’t give me the required credentials to be your partner.
So here’s more.
- I have worked in the wine industry for over 20 years as a research professional and sensory consultant.
- I have taught wine sensory evaluation to graduate students at Brock University and other colleges.
- My applied research work appeared in over 50 peer-reviewed academic publications and several book chapters.
- I had the privilege to be a keynote speaker at several conferences over my career the International Cool Climate Wine Symposium, the Australian Wine Technical Conference, The Pangborn Sensory Symposium, and In Vino Analytica Scientia to name a few.
- I serve the American Wine Society Educational Foundation as VP of scholarship to support the next generation of North American wine professionals.
You may wonder...
Is sensory science just a fancier way of wine tasting?
Yes and No.
It's not fancier….more objective.
Sensory is the science behind what happens when we taste wine.
Sensory techniques and protocols allow us to study and interpret how we, humans and wine lovers, respond to the wines we taste as we experience them through our senses of sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing.
Traditional methods are about judging and checking boxes about what you have memorized about what the wine style should taste.
Sensory tasting lets your senses discover and analyze your perceptions without external influences.
It’s more fair to the wine and its makers!
What’s the benefit of adopting sensory tasting in winery operations and tasting rooms?
Sensory science helps you make informed decisions.
We conduct tastings differently to ensure the tasters are not influenced or biased in any way.
You collect tasting data you can trust to make decisions because these data are unbiased, reproducible, and not based on one person’s opinion.
Here are some examples of how wine businesses can make informed decisions using sound and robust sensory tasting data.
- To give the go/no go to adopt a new viticulture practice or a new winemaking treatment based on trial sensory data, or
- To launch a new wine style validated to be the preferred blend for one of your consumer segments, or
- To test different tasting experiences in your tasting room and select the best performing using reliable data.
How does adopting sensory tasting help you become a more discerning wine taster?
As a sensory scientist, I have conducted training sessions for hundreds of wine enthusiasts, both in person and virtually, to enhance their sensory skills and regain confidence in articulating the intricate nuances of wine flavors.
In my experiential learning programs, I give you practices to follow at home to learn identify wine flavors and become more confident in your wine descriptions.
I teach you to minimize any bias that can alter your wine appreciation.
Getting rid of the rigid tasting rituals is so liberating!
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