IVAS 2022 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 IVAS 9 IVAS 2022 9 The wine: a never-ending source of H2S and methanethiol

The wine: a never-ending source of H2S and methanethiol

Abstract

Volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs), mainly hydrogen sulfide and methanethiol (H2S and MeSH), are the responsible for reductive off-odor in wine. These compounds can remain in the wine under different chemical forms: free forms, bound to metal cations or as oxidized precursors (polysulfides and polysulfanes). Some remediation treatments, such as aeration, micro-oxygenation, copper fining and addition of oenological products are frequently used by the winemakers to eliminate the reductive problems however, they are not completely effective and sometimes this problem can reappear after a certain period of time. Recently, another options (e.g. filtration, purge…) have been also tested but their efficacy at long term is not much better. These strategies act on the free and bonded forms, therefore it has been hypothesized that exist a huge reservoir of VSCs (in oxidized forms) which is not removed by the remediation treatments and that could explain their inefficacy. Nowadays, it does not exist any reliable method to know the amount of oxidized forms in wine which could be the source of H2S and MeSH. This knowledge could help to understand better the problem of reduction of wines and improve the remediation strategies. For that reason, the objective of this work was developing a new system to monitor the release of VSCs during the storage of different wines under anoxia. This system is based on the use of reversible trapping solutions to retain the VSCs at the same time that they are produced in the wine. Different metal cations, in terms of ability and speed have been studied as potential trapping agents. The reversibility of the process to quantify H2S and MeSH was also evaluated. After the system was optimized, it was applied to several wines stored at different temperatures under anoxic conditions. Cu (I) was chosen as the best option to use in the trapping solution and a dilution with brine and addition of tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine (TCEP) was selected to revert the trapping process and quantify the analytes. The linearity and the reproducibility of the system was evaluated and satisfactory results were obtained. The stability of the trapping solutions was also studied to know when they should be replaced in the system to avoid problems in the determination of the analytes. The rate of formation of the VSCs on the real wines depended on the storage temperature, ranging the maximum for each wine from 3 µg/hour to 10 µg/hour of H2S at 75ºC and from 0.1 µg/hour to 0.4 µg/hour at 50ºC. In the case of MeSH, the rate was one order of magnitude lower than for H2S. The total amount of VSCs produced was different for each wine and for each temperature, reaching more than 2 mg/L of H2S at 75ºC and more than 200 µg/L at 50ºC after one month of storage. This system could be useful to predict the tendency of a wine to develop the problem of reduction and evaluate the efficacy of different remediation strategies.

DOI:

Publication date: June 23, 2022

Issue: IVAS 2022

Type: Article

Authors

Ontañón Ignacio1, Sánchez-Gimeno Diego1 and Ferreira Vicente1

1University of Zaragoza, Laboratorio de Análisis del Aroma y Enología. Química Analítica. Facultad de Ciencias. Universidad de Zaragoza. C/ Pedro Cerbuna, 12, 50009, Zaragoza, Spain

Contact the author

Keywords

Reduction, sulfur off odors, hydrogen sulfide, sulfide precursors, anoxic storage

Tags

IVAS 2022 | IVES Conference Series

Citation

Related articles…

Local ancient grapevine cultivars to face future viticulture

Among the different strategies to cope with the negative impacts of climate change on viticulture, the exploitation of genetic diversity is one of the most promising to adapt to new conditions and maintain wine production and quality. One of the biggest concerns in the context of climate change is to improve water use efficiency (WUE). In this way, the use of genotypes that present a better response to drought and high WUE is a key issue. In this work, physiological performance analysis was conducted to compare the water deficit stress (WDS) responses of local and widespread grapevines cultivars. Leaf gas exchange, water use efficiency (WUE) at different levels (leaf and long-term WUE (∆13C)), leaf osmotic adjustment and other water relations parameters were determined in plants under well-watered and WDS conditions alongside assessment of the levels of foliar hormones concentrations. Results denote that local cultivars displayed better physiological performance under WDS as compared to the widely-distributed ones. he results corroborate the hypothesis that better stomatal control allows increasing leaf WUE under drought as occurred in the local Callet cv.; but the minority local cultivar Escursac cv. showed high WUE under both treatments. In this case, high WUE can be related to maintaining higher photosynthetic activity under drought. The different mechanisms underlying the better performance under WDS and high WUE of minority local cultivars are discussed.

Effects of graft quality on growth and grapevine-water relations

Climate change is challenging viticulture worldwide compromising its sustainability due to warmer temperatures and the increased frequency of extreme events. Grafting Vitis vinifera L.

Current climate change in the Oplenac wine-growing district (Serbia)

Serbian autochthonous vine varieties Smederevka (for white wines) and Prokupac (for rosé and red wines) are the primary representatives of typical characteristics of wines and terroir of numerous wine-growing areas in Serbia. In the past, these varieties were the leading vine varieties, however, as the result of globalization of winemaking and the trend of consumption of wines from widely prevalent vine varieties, they were replaced by introduced international varieties. Smederevka and Prokupac vine varieties are characterized by later time of grape ripening, and relative sensitivity to low temperatures. Climate conditions can be a restrictive factor for production of high-quality grapes and wine and for the spatial spreading of these varieties in hilly continental wine-growing areas.
This paper focuses on the spatial analysis of changes of main climate parameters, in particular, analysis of viticultural bioclimatic indices that were determined for the purposes of viticulture zoning of wine-growing areas in the period 1961-2010, and those same parameters determined for the current, that is, referential climate period (1988-2017). Results of the research, that is, analysis of climate changes indicate that the majority of examined climate parameters in the Oplenac wine-growing district improved from the perspective of Smederevka and Prokupac vine varieties. These studies of climate conditions indicate that changes of analyzed climate parameters, that is, bioclimatic indices will be favorable for cultivation of varieties with later grape ripening times and those more sensitive to low temperatures, such as the autochthonous vine varieties Smederevka and Prokupac, therefore, it is recommended to producers to more actively plant vineyards with these varieties in the territory of the Oplenac wine-growing district.

VINIoT: Precision viticulture service for SMEs based on IoT sensors network

The main innovation in the VINIoT service is the joint use of two technologies that are currently used separately: vineyard monitoring using multispectral imaging and deployed terrain sensors. One part of the system is based on the development of artificial intelligence algorithms that are feed on the images of the multispectral camera and IoT sensors, high-level information on water stress, grape ripening status and the presence of diseases. In order to obtain algorithms to determine the state of ripening of the grapes and avoid losing information due to the diversity of the grape berries, it was decided to work along the first year 2020 at berry scale in the laboratory, during the second year at the cluster scale and on the last year at plot scale. Different varieties of white and red grapes were used; in the case of Galicia we worked with the white grape variety Treixadura and the red variety Mencía. During the 2020 and 2021 campaigns, multispectral images were taken in the visible and infrared range of: 1) sets of 100 grapes classifying them by means of densimetric baths, 2) individual bunches. The images taken with the laboratory analysis of the ripening stage were correlated. Technological maturity, pH, probable degree, malic acid content, tartaric acid content and parameters for assessing phenolic maturity, IPT, anthocyanin content were determined. It has been calculated for each single image the mean value of each spectral band (only taking into account the pixels of interest) and a correlation study of these values with laboratory data has been carried out. These studies are still provisional and it will be necessary to continue with them, jointly with the training of the machine learning algorithms. Processed data will allow to determine the sensitivity of the multispectral images and select bands of interest in maturation.

The modification of cultural practices in grapevine cv. Syrah, does it modify the characteristics of the musts?

The work shows the results of a year of experimentation (2020) in a Syrah variety vineyard in La Roda (Castilla-La Mancha, Spain). The trial approach was on a randomized block design with two factors: Irrigation (I) and Pruning (P).
Irrigation schedules were adjusted to apply amounts close to 1,500 m3/ha. With this provision, 2 different irrigation treatments were proposed: I1) Start of irrigation from pea-sized grape to post-harvest (providing at least 20 % of the total amount of irrigation water to be provided post-harvest); I2) Start of irrigation from pea-sized grape to harvest (usual irrigation practice in the study area). Pruning was proposed with two treatments, one at the end of January (P1), which is pruning on a conventional date; and P2) pruning carried out at the beginning of budding. In total, 4 repetitions were designed with 4 elementary plots, each one of them representing one of the proposed treatments (I1P1; I1P2; I2P1; I2P2). In total, 16 plots were worked on and each elementary plot consisted of 30 strains, distributed in 3 lines.
The productive response was evaluated with the yield results of the harvest harvested at 23 ºBrix. The qualitative response was measured in the musts through the indices of technological (acidity, pH and potassium) and phenolic maturity and aromatic compounds in free and glycosylated fractions. The treatments tested had, in general, an effect on the different variables analyzed.