Introduction: The aim of the study was to assess bubble characteristics in three different sparkling wines, two different sparkling waters, one standard beer and one demineralised water for ironing with CT, MRI and ultrasound (US). Furthermore, the correlation between personal taste and the measured bubble intensity should be assessed.
Methods: The study was carried out as a prospective study. All liquid samples were scanned in three rounds, and the outcomes were measured blinded. Afterwards four healthy volunteers from a department of radiology tasted all samples: three sparkling wines with different ages, two tiers of sparkling waters, one pilsner beer and demineralised water for ironing. The main outcome measures were: bubble size, intensity and decay, evaluated with MRI and US and Hounsfield units (HU) from CT. Foam, bubble intensity, smell and colour were evaluated from a custom-made questionnaire.
Results: The decay of bubbles in sparkling wine and beer was slower than in sparkling water as seen on US and MRI, and the intensity as well as the bubble size diminished over time. CT was unable to assess bubble characteristics but showed increasing HU values with increasing sugar content. Measurements on US and MRI were correlated with more factors from the taste evaluation than CT was. No signs of intoxication were observed in the assessors.
Conclusions: US and MRI could be useful tools for evaluating sparkling wine objectively in blaseology. CT was of insufficient spatial resolution to assess individual bubbles.