Effect of maceration conditions during the winemaking of withered Corvina grapes on wine polyphenols and anthocyanins

Abstract

Amarone is an Italian red wine with worldwide recognition and high added value. In Amarone wines, grapes undergo a withering process before vinification; this leads to a modification in the concentrations of sugars, acids, and secondary metabolites. Most of the research has focused on the influence of yeasts and the drying process on Amarone quality [1-4], but little has been done on the influence of maceration during vinification on this type of wine. Therefore, a design of experiment approach was used to investigate the impact of cold soak, fermentation temperature (20 ºC or 27 ºC), and maceration time (skin and seed contact for 10 or 30 days) on the winemaking of withered ‘Corvina’ grapes. Fermentation was carried out with Saccharomyces cerevisiae EC1118 strain, and each experiment was performed in triplicate. Chemical and oenological parameters were evaluated on the 3^rd, 10^th, and 30^th day, as well as at bottling. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA)showed that the samples differed mainly based on maceration time and, to a lesser extent, on maceration temperature. Fermentation at 27 ºC allowed for greater extraction of polyphenolic compounds, in line with previous literature [5-7]. Besides maceration time and temperature, another possible explanation for the higher polyphenol content could be the ethanol content in these samples (above 15% v/v). Apart from phenolic compounds, anthocyanin concentration, colour intensity, and shade are important parameters that impact sensory properties [6]. Longer maceration time is the main factor that negatively affects anthocyanins, but it has a positive impact on the wine shade. For colour intensity, the 48-hour cold soak had a huge impact on the increase of this parameter. The initial data of this work provide interesting insights into improving the quality of Amarone wines. Further analysis will focus on profiling polyphenolic and aromatic compounds.

Funding

This study is part of the STRAWINE project funded by the Italian Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca (PRIN project no. 20223K8EJP). Funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU, Missione 4 Componente 1, CUP D53D23011540001.

References

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