Evidence of Aerosol Formation During Simulated Wine Drinking.

In this study, aerosols formed via oral movement while drinking wine were hypothesized as an oral-nasal delivery mechanism for aroma compounds with limited volatility, potentially inducing specific retronasal sensory perception. To this end, the formation mechanism of flavored aerosol particles (hexyl hexanoate) using model wine samples was investigated in vitro using the mechanical agitation method. The physical and physicochemical property variations of model wine samples had a significant impact on the total quantity of formed aerosol and average particle size, as well as flavor release, validated using gas chromatography. Taken together, this is the first study demonstrating that flavored ethanol aerosols could be formed using an in vitro method, and generated aerosol droplets could be suspended in and transported with air, and had the potential to settle onto mucus and trigger sensory perception.