Influence of winemaking technologies on phenolic composition of Italian red wines

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the influence of different winemaking technologies on the chemical characteristics and, in particular, on the phenolic fraction of Aglianico, Montepulciano, Nero di Troia and Sangiovese wines produced in Apulia, Southern Italy. Four different winemaking technologies were compared: control (traditional, 5 days of maceration at 25°C with three daily punching-down), prolonged maceration (10 days), addition of ellagic tannins, and cryomaceration (24 h at 5°C using dry ice), without any other oenological treatment. Results showed that the different technologies slightly influenced the phenolic fraction of Aglianico, which is known to be naturally rich of phenols. On the contrary, the prolonged maceration led to an increase of total phenols (TP) in Nero di Troia (2592 mg/kg versus 2115 mg/kg of control) and a decrease in Sangiovese (869 mg/kg versus 1013 mg/kg); the addition of tannins led to an increase of TP in Montepulciano (1358 mg/kg versus 1216 mg/kg) and to a decrease in Sangiovese (916 mg/kg versus 1013 mg/kg); cryomaceration led to a decrease of anthocyans in all cultivars (about 15%). Phenols extraction from grapes was found to be mostly dependent on the grape variety rather than on the applied winemaking technology

Effect of cold pre-fermentative maceration on the color and composition of young red wines cv. Tannat

“…The cold prefermentative process did not increase the anthocyanin levels; control wines had higher contents of these pigments in every vintage (Fig. 4) that agrees to the results of many papers Pérez-Lamela et al 2007;Puertas et al 2008;Gil-Muñoz et al 2009;Gambacorta et al 2011). However, several works showed an increase in the anthocyanin contents of wines produced by pre-fermentative maceration at low temperature (Table 1), affect strongly the effect of the pre-fermentative skin contact on the release of these compounds.…”

“…Nevertheless, the effect of technology on the anthocyanin composition of wines needs to be further investigated, since it seems to be linked to the intrinsic characteristics of grapes in terms of ripening and richness in phenols (Gambacorta et al 2011). …”

“…Consequently, the composition of wines and their sensorial attributes could be modified, with particular impact on their color features (Sacchi et al 2005;Gambacorta et al 2011;González-Neves et al 2013). Cold Pre-fermentative Maceration (CPM) is an interesting technique for several grape varieties to enhance the extraction of pigments, aroma and flavour compounds from grape skins to must (Gómez-Míguez et al 2007;Heredia et al 2010).…”

“…Nevertheless, several studies provided contradictory results of this practice on the color and composition of wines. Many works showed an increase in color and anthocyanin content of wines made by CPM Parenti et al 2004;De Beer et al 2006;Gómez-Míguez et al 2007;Busse-Valverde et al 2011;González-Neves et al 2013) although other papers showed little impact or negative effects of this technique Pérez-Lamela et al 2007;Gambacorta et al 2011). These results are related to the effects of many factors which conditioned the cold soak such as grape variety, ripeness of berries, temperature, skin contact time and refrigeration technique of must (Parenti et al 2004;Álvarez et al 2006;Gambacorta et al 2011;Ortega-Heras et al 2012).…”

Evolution of anthocyanins during vinification of Merlot and Pinot Noir grapes to wines

“…Some authors (ROMERO-CASCALES et al, 2005;MORENO-ARIBAS et al, 2008) found that the fi ngerprint of grapes was different from the one of the elaborated wines, and infl uenced by the technology applied in their winemaking. On the other hand, others (GAMBACORTA et al, 2011;PUÉRTOLAS et al, 2011) reported that extraction of phenolics from grape skins to wine was mostly depending on the grape variety rather than on the applied winemaking technology. Nevertheless, if some correlation between the grape and wine anthocyanin patterns could be confi rmed, it may be used for authentication purposes and controlling the origin of the wine.…”