Influence of protective colloids on tartrate stability, polysaccharide contents and volatile compound profile of a white wine

Abstract

The tartaric salts precipitation is one of the main issues regarding wine instability ¹. In addition to the well-known and deeply studied phenomena of potassium hydrogentartrate precipitation (KHT), the last decade has been increased the phenomena of calcium tartrate (CaT) precipitation, that is a concern for the wine industry ². Extractive and additive methods have been proposed to address the tartrate salts instability of wines ³, although the additive methods are more favourable from an energetical and environmental point of views. This study aimed to check the effectiveness of employing different protective colloids (metatartaric acid [MTA], carboxymethylcellulose [CMC], potassium polyaspartate [KPA], mannoproteins [MP] and Arabic gum [AG]) over the KHT and CaT wine stabilities of a Chilean white wine. Furthermore, the side effects of the colloid addition on the soluble polysaccharides, volatile compound profiles, and sensory perception were checked. The instable bulk wine was used to fill 18 jugs (3 L), where the different treatments were applied in triplicate besides a control (untreated triplicate). One week after treatments, the wines were bottled and stored in a dark cellar (18 °C) until analysis. The wine stability regarding both KHT and CaT salts were checked as reported ⁴. General parameters and colour features of wines were analysed according to the methods recommended by the International Organization of Vine and Wine. The colloidal profile of treated and untreated wines was recorded by HRSEC-RID after precipitation with cold acidified ethanol ². Moreover, the volatile compound profile was recorded by means of HS-SPME-GC-MS. The results highlight that the applied protective colloids can protect against the KHT precipitation, but they are poorly effective against the CaT precipitation. Slight effects were observed in wine colour among treatments, pointing that the colloids can exert a differential protective effect against phenolic compounds oxidation. As previously reported ², the addition of AG greatly modifies the soluble polysaccharides profile but also increased the wine turbidity compared to the other conditions. Regarding the volatile compound profile, the wines treated with CMC and KPA showed the higher contents of esters, carbonyl compounds, and alcohols. Thus, the addition of colloids such as CMC and KPA do not have a negative impact on the volatile composition of white wines.

References

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