Too many stinkbugs spoil the wine
The grape-loving insects are a foul-smelling addition
By
Elizabeth Eaton
7:00am, February 22, 2017
How many stressed-out stinkbugs does it take to spoil a batch of wine? More than three per grape cluster, new research says.
Stinkbugs are a pest among vintners because of the bugs’ taste for wine grapes and namesake foul smell. When accidentally harvested with the grapes and fermented during the wine-making process, the live insects can release their stink and ruin the wine (SN: 5/5/07, p. 285). The newly determined threshold is three per cluster of grape, researchers from Oregon State University in Corvallis report in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. More stinkbugs produced red wine that tasted musty, as judged by a consumer panel. Quality tanked with rising levels of the stress compound, (E)-2-decenal, which smells like coriander.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/too-many-stinkbugs-spoil-wine?mode=topic&context=60
