Effects of transport conditions on the stability and sensory quality of wines

Abstract

The quality of wine can be affected by several factors after bottling: temperature changes, shipment time, type and amount of mechanical stress (vibrations) and environmental conditions, such as light exposure and relative humidity. The effects of delivery using different packaging systems (boxes, bottles, containers) and the impacts of mode of shipment (car, truck, airplane and cargo ship) are reviewed, along with compositional markers, the reactions leading to off-odours and/or off-flavours and the approaches to monitoring transportation conditions (temperature, relative humidity and type and entity of vibration) and their impacts on the sensory profile of the wine. Temperature fluctuations are more prevalent during the transport of wine over land than by sea, and may lead to a decrease in the fresh, fruity and floral aromas of the wine and to premature aging due to the ‘pump’ effect (repeated expansion and contraction cycles). Trans-shipment phases should be reduced to a minimum, especially in hot climates. Vibrations, even for a short period of time (15 days), can alter the overall quality of the product.

Effects of Microvibrations and Their Damping on the Evolution of Pinot Noir Wine during Bottle Storage

“…It is well known that vibrations can modify and accelerate the process of ageing [ 18 ]. On the contrary, little is known on the long-term effects of microvibrations on high-quality wines, even when stored in optimal conditions.…”

Haze Formation and the Challenges for Peptidases in Wine Protein Fining

“…Moreover, they may trigger protein aggregation in cases where they are permanently exposed after an improper refolding process, where the proteins do not recover their native conformations. As a result, unfined commercial wines containing HUPs become turbid when exposed to defined moderate temperatures such as >40 °C or temperature changes during storage or transport . This process can be experimentally accelerated by a so-called “heat test”, which consists of heating wine samples up to 80 °C with subsequent cooling to different temperatures from 4 to 25 °C for different time intervals (from 0.5 to 18 h). , …”

Recombinant Thaumatin-Like Protein (rTLP) and Chitinase (rCHI) from Vitis vinifera as Models for Wine Haze Formation

“…Such protein flocculation result from the thermolabile grape pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins or heat-unstable proteins (HUPs), predominantly thaumatin-like proteins (TLPs) and chitinases (CHIs). Moreover, these protein-protein interactions are influenced by numerous wine matrix components such as polyphenols [ 1 ], metal and sulfite ions [ 2 ], organic acids [ 3 ] as well as specific physicochemical conditions such as moderate temperature [ 4 , 5 ], high ionic strength [ 6 ] and acidic pH [ 7 ]. Although TLPs are reported to have hydrophobic spots that bind polyphenolic compounds [ 8 ] and irregular structures that interact via intermolecular disulfide bridges [ 9 , 10 ], CHIs are reported to be less stable and to denature irreversibly [ 11 ].…”

“…Since haze in non-fined wines is mainly induced by temperature variations during transportation and storage, it eventually causes consumer aversion due to an unpleasant appearance [ 5 , 13 ]. To avoid this, high amounts of bentonite clay are still applied in clarification processes, although its adsorptive cationic character has deleterious effects on wine aroma, taste, and volume [ 14 , 15 ].…”