Aroma and mouthfeel cues are the main characteristics defining red wine quality. During wine tasting, perceptual and physical-chemical phenomena leading to mutual interactions between volatiles and non-volatiles sensory active compounds, can occur. Aroma perception depends on the release of volatiles from wine, that is affected by wine constituents present in the medium (Pittari et al. 2021; Lyu et al. 2021). Our aim was to evaluate the effect of the non-volatile wine matrix composition (polyphenols, PPh) on the release and perception of red wine aromas by an experiment of matrix enrichment.

[English version below]

A tre anni dal suo inizio, nel 1997 si è conclusa la prima fase della ricerca “Caratterizzazione della produzione DOC Soave”. Lo studio ha basato il suo percorso sperimentale su alcuni punti fondamentali tra i quali:
• Recupero di tutte le informazioni storico-colturali sul vino Soave e sul suo territorio di produzione.

In Ancient Egypt, wine was a luxury product consumed mainly by the upper classes and the royal family and offered to gods in daily religious rituals in the temples.
Since the Predynastic (4000-3100 BC) period, wine jars were placed in tombs as funerary offerings. From the Old Kingdom (2680-2160 BC) to the Greco-Roman (332 BC-395 AD) period, viticulture and winemaking scenes were depicted on the private tombs’ walls. During the New Kingdom (1539-1075 BC), wine jars were inscribed to indicate: vintage year, product, quality, provenance, property and winemaker’s name and title.

Valpolicella is a famous Italian wine-producing region (Paronetto & Dellaglio, 2011), whose main characteristic is the extensive use of the post-harvest withering technique, which takes place in naturally ventilated rooms called ‘fruttai’ (Bellincontro et al., 2016).

A relevant trend in winemaking is to reduce the use of chemical compounds in both the vineyard and winery.

High temperatures can reduce the phenolic content of grapes, especially anthocyanins and copigments involved in colour stabilisation of red wines [1]. This could make it difficult to maintain stable colour during storage [2].

The study of the capacity to consume oxygen of the wines is an aspect of great interest since it allows to analyse their useful life.

ulfur compounds in wine have been studied for several years due to their impact on wine flavour, but the role of polysulfides is a recent topic. Polysulfides in wine are formed when two sulfhydryl groups oxidize, especially in presence of elemental sulfur or metal catalysts from field treatment residues (Ugliano et al. 2011). These compounds are odourless, but can degrade during storage and affect the wine quality. The mechanism of their formation is still largely unknown but different chemical and biochemical pathways have been suggested. Disulfides from cysteine (Cys) and glutathione (GSH) have been revealed in model wines (Kreitman et al. 2016) and more recently also higher polymerized forms in real wines (Van Leeuwen et al. 2020). Volatile varietal thiols like 3-mercaptohexanol (3MH) and 4-mercaptopentanone (4MMP) – flavour compounds with tropical or fruity notes – could undergo similar reactions, also with Cys and GSH, subsequently losing their flavour property (fate). Even more concerning is the possible release of H2S from polysulfides during storage, leading to undesired off-flavours (Sarrazin et al. 2010).

In partnership with a Bordeaux property wanting to improve the quality of its second wine, the effects of two factors, American oak barrels and mannoproteins were studied. Their impact on the attractiveness and sweetness of wines were characterized during two successive vintages (2012 and 2013). Vinification took place with a homogeneous batch of Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine was then divided up into various groups of five barrels of French and American oak, new or reused. Analyses of volatile and non-volatile wood compounds were undertaken at four months and eight months of wood ageing, by LC-MS and GC-MS.

It is well known that the vinification of grapes at full maturation can produce rich, full-bodied wines,
with intense and complex flavour profiles. However, the juice obtained from such grapes may have very
high sugar concentration, resulting in wines with an excessive concentration of ethanol. In addition, the decoupling between technological maturity and phenolic/aromatic one due to global warming, exacerbates this problem in some wine-growing regions. In parallel with the increase of the mean alcohol content of wines on the market, also the demand for reduced alcohol beverages has increased in recent years, mainly as a result of health and social concerns about the risks related to the consumption of alcohol.