Wine Aging Technologies

Wine aging is a desirable and valuable process, commonly used to improve wine quality, and traditionally carried out in oak wooden casks [...

Characterization of the Oxygen Transmission Rate of New-Ancient Natural Materials for Wine Maturation Containers

Today, there is a trend in enology promoting a return to the use of old natural materials for the manufacture of storage and maturation wine tanks. One of the most sought-after characteristics of these materials is their permeability to oxygen from the atmosphere to improve wines without this being a harmful process. The reference performance in wine aging is, without doubt, the oak barrel for its ability to oxidize wines in a controlled way, thus improving them. It would be possible to mature wines in containers in which the use of wood is not obligatory, as opposed to aging in oak barrels or foudres. This work presents the results of oxygen permeation analysis under test conditions typical of a tank containing wine, using materials, such as concrete and granite. The oxygen permeability of the materials tested was very diverse, typical of natural materials. The results showed that earthenware presents an excessive permeability, not only to atmospheric oxygen, but also to liquids and needs treatment before being used in liquid containers. Claystone and concrete can be impermeable to liquids, but maintain permeability to atmospheric oxygen—making them candidates for use in permeable tanks for wine maturation. Finally, granite has some very interesting characteristics, though thickness control is required when calculating the desired oxygen transmission rate

Artificial Intelligence Methods for Constructing Wine Barrels with a Controlled Oxygen Transmission Rate

Oxygen is an important factor in the wine aging process, and the oxygen transmission rate (OTR) is the parameter of the wood that reflects its oxygen permeation. OTR has not been considered in the cooperage industry yet; however, recent studies proposed a nondestructive method for estimating the OTR of barrel staves, but an efficient method to combine these staves to build barrels with a desired OTR is needed to implement it in the industry. This article proposes artificial intelligence methods for selecting staves for the construction of barrel heads or bodies with a desired target OTR. Genetic algorithms were used to implement these methods in consideration of the known OTR of the staves and the geometry of the wine barrels. The proposed methods were evaluated in several scenarios: homogenizing the OTR of the actual constructed barrels, constructing low-OTR and high-OTR barrels based on a preclassification of the staves and implementing the proposed method in real cooperage conditions. The results of these experiments suggest the suitability of the proposed methods for their implementation in a cooperage in order to build controlled OTR barrels

Alternative Woods in Oenology: Volatile Compounds Characterisation of Woods with Respect to Traditional Oak and Effect on Aroma in Wine, a Review

The interest of winemakers to find new woods that can give their wines a special personality and the need for cooperage wood have led to the use of other woods than traditional oak. The aroma of wines is undoubtedly one of the quality factors most valued by consumers. Volatile compounds from wood are transferred to wines during ageing. The type and quantity of aromas in wood depend on several factors, with the species, origin and cooperage treatments, particularly toasting, being very important. The transfer of volatile compounds to the wine depends not only on the wood but also on the wine itself and the type of ageing. This review therefore aims to recapitulate the volatile composition of alternative oenological woods at different cooperage stages and to compare them with traditional woods. It also summarises studies on the effect of wine aromas during ageing both in barrels and with fragments of alternative woods. In summary, it is observed that both woods and wines aged with alternative species of the Quercus genus present the same volatile compounds as traditional ones, but differ quantitatively; however, non-Quercus woods also differ qualitatively

Evaluation of grape pomace from red wine by-product as feed for sheep

9 páginas, 4 tablas, 3 figuras.This work aimed to study the chemical composition and in vitro digestibility of seeds and pulp from grape pomace. In sacco degradability, ruminal fermentation of grape pomace fractions and plasma lipid peroxidation were also studied in sheep fed with or without grape pomace. RESULTS: Seed and pulp fractions of grape pomace had different values for cell walls (523 vs 243 g kg dry matter (DM)), crude protein (CP, 104 vs 138 g kg DM), ether extract (EE, 99.0 vs 31.7 g kg DM), polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA, 69.6 vs 53.3%) and extractable polyphenols (55.0 vs 32.1 g kg DM). The in vitro true digestibility, DM in sacco degradability and CP degradability of seeds and pulp were also different (0.51 vs 0.82, 0.30 vs 0.45 and 0.66 vs 0.39 respectively). The ammonia-N concentration and total volatile fatty acids (VFA) in ruminal liquid were significantly lower and plasma lipid peroxidation was also numerically lower in sheep that consumed grape pomace. CONCLUSION: The nutritive value of grape pomace varies depending on the proportion of seeds and pulp. The interest of this by-product in sheep feeding could be related to its polyphenol and PUFA content, which could improve meat and milk quality. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.This work was subsidized by INIA (RTA2010-0068-C02) andthe Consejería de Educación de la Junta de Castilla y León(VA196A11-2). Cristina Guerra-Rivas was supported by an FPUgrant (FPU AP-2010-0571) from the Spanish Ministry of Education.We would also like to thank Escuela de Capacitación Agraria deViñalta (Junta de Castilla y León) for the facilities and the animalsused in this study.Peer Reviewe

Impact of long bottle aging (10 years) on volatile composition of red wines micro-oxygenated with oak alternatives

The adding of wood pieces together with small amounts of oxygen to simulate the processes for aging red wine in barrels is the most common alternative to oak barrels. The evolution of these wines aged with alternatives in bottle has not been examined in depth as they are considered to be for rapid consumption. This paper presents for the first time the evolution in bottle for 10 years of the same wine aged in oak barrels and subjected to diverse alternative aging processes using different woods. Wines subjected to this alternative have evolved after 10 years in the bottle in a similar way to those aged in barrels. Wines aged in barrels retain significantly higher levels of blue tonalities than those treated with chips + FMOX and the loss of compounds responsible for red is almost double in wines treated with alternatives than in those aged in barrels. Wines aged in barrels showed higher concentrations of cis- and trans-whiskylactones than those treated with alternative products. In both the cis/trans whisky lactone ratio has been around 2 in wines aged in French oak, and over 5 in wines aged in American oak. Adequate oxygen management during treatment with oak alternatives provides long-life wines.Work financed by Junta de Castilla y León (VA028U16), MINECO (AGL2014-54602-P), FEDER, Interreg España-Portugal Programme (Iberphenol). T.G.C. thanks MINECO for her contractPeer reviewe

Influence of Quercus petraea Liebl. wood structure on the permeation of oxygen through wine barrel staves

The anatomical characteristics of oak wood, which is usually employed for making wine barrels, affect the properties of the wine, because these characteristics are related to the chemical compounds that can be potentially transferred to wine during the aging process. Grain, as the rate of tree growth, is the most commonly employed parameter to define the quality of the oak wood used in cooperage. Nevertheless, oxygen is a key factor in this process and there are few articles that evaluate the oxygen transmission rate (OTR) of the wood employed in cooperage. This work presents the evaluation of the anatomical characteristics of the French oak (Quercus petraea Liebl.) measured with X-ray computed tomography and the OTR of 267 wood samples extracted from recently constructed wine barrels. This study demonstrates that the OTR is dependent on the anatomical features of oak wood, the first step to classify a natural material as wood for custom oxygenation barrel making. OTR cannot be determined from the wood grain or any other single property because it depends on the overall anatomical characteristics of each wood sample, the grain and the average earlywood and latewood width being the three parameters with a stronger correlation with the OTR

Phenolic and volatile compounds in Quercus humboldtii Bonpl. wood: effect of toasting with respect to oaks traditionally used in cooperage

[Background] The most frequent renewal of barrels of different origins and species is a current trend, but this demand does not match the current availability of wood. An alternative could be the use of Quercus humboldtii wood. However, there is little information about its composition. Because of this, the aim was to study low‐molecular‐weight phenols (LMWP), ellagitannins and volatile compounds in untoasted and toasted Q. humboldtii oak, and compare these with the species traditionally used in cooperage: Q. petraea (French and Romanian) and Q. alba (American). [Results] The LMWPs in Q. humboldtii were comparable to those in Q. petraea and Q. alba. Ellagitannin composition in Q. humboldtii was similar to that in Q. alba. The toasting process improved volatile composition, mainly in Q. humboldtii, presenting the highest concentration of several volatile compounds. [Conclusion] The results indicate that Q. humboldtii could be considered suitable for aging wine, although it is necessary to continue the study of this wood species to confirm its potential use in oenologyThis work was financed by the European Regional Development Fund FEDER, Interreg Spain–Portugal Programme, under the framework of the project Iberphenol, POCTEP—Programa Operativo Cooperación Transfron, CONICYT, Fondecyt de Iniciación Grant No. 11150462, Chile, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, AGL2014‐ 54602P, Consejería de Educación, Junta de Castilla y León, VA028U16 and with the collaboration of Tonelería Nacional Ltda, Santiago de Chile. G.G.‐G. would like to acknowledge the financial support given by CONICYT through BCH/Doctorado (72170532)Peer reviewe

Influence of Oxygen Management on Color and Phenolics of Red Wines

Winemaking involves contact at different stages with atmospheric oxygen, the consumption of which determines its final properties. The chemical analysis of red wines subjected to consecutive cycles of air saturation has been extensively researched; however, the capacity to consume different doses of oxygen before bottling is an aspect that has been little studied. In this work, the effect of saturation of different levels of oxygen on the final characteristics of different wines made from Tempranillo and Garnacha grape extracts was studied. For this purpose, the wines were subjected to controlled oxygen saturation levels to simulate their possible oxygenation before bottling. The only difference was the phenolic composition of grape extracts that were reconstituted under the same conditions to avoid the interferences inherent to the fermentation process and the additives added in the winery. The kinetics of oxygen consumption was then evaluated and its effect on the color, antioxidant capacity, and phenols of three different wines was analyzed. This work shows the relationship between the oxidation state of wine and changes in its chemical composition. In addition, it provides insight into the effect of oxygen consumption before bottling on the properties of wines subjected to high and single doses of oxygen

Development of a New Strategy for Studying the Oxygen Consumption Potential of Wine through the Grape Extract Evaluation

The development of a method to determine the aging potential of wine at the time of harvest, through the evaluation of its oxygen avidity, is a potential tool for the winemaking sector. To this end, it is necessary to formulate a potential wine with this grape prior to alcoholic fermentation. The main objective of this method was to optimize a formulation of the potential wine, based on the grape extracts (GEs), to subsequently evaluate its oxygen consumption kinetics, guaranteeing maximum differentiation between the different GEs. The optimization was carried out with a Taguchi orthogonal matrix design, which optimized the variables to be used in the GE reconstitution. The variables studied were pH, Fe2+, Cu2+, Mn2+, alcohol content and acetaldehyde. The evaluation of the characteristic parameters of the consumption kinetics of each of the GEs allowed us to know the different reconstitution conditions that most influence the differentiation of the oxygen consumption kinetics of very similar GEs. The reconstitution conditions chosen were pH 3.3; 1 mg/L Fe2+; 0.1 mg/L Cu2+; 1 mg/L Mn2+; 12% (v/v) alcoholic strength and 10 mg/L acetaldehyde, with pH, Fe2+ and Mn2+ being the significant conditions. The kinetics of reconstituted GE could be a tool for the classification and evaluation of grapes according to their aging potential or shelf life of the wine made