Is the shelf-life of wines spirits influenced by their ageing technology?

Abstract

Wine Spirit (WS) is a spirit beverage that is usually consumed after ageing. In the production process, this stage is essential to achieve the desired sensory properties, depending on several factors, including the wood botanical species and the technology applied1. However, it is a time-consuming and expensive stage2. In this context, the research project Centro-04-3928-FEDER-000001was developed, aiming to study aged WS resulting from different ageing technologies (traditional technology using wooden barrels and alternative technology combining wood staves with micro-oxygenation – MOX), together with different botanical species (Q. robur L. and C. sativa Mill.). To this end, the same “Lourinhã” wine distillate was distributed by 250 L barrels made from Limousin oak or chestnut, and by 1000 L stainless steel tanks with wood staves inside (Limousin oak or chestnut) combined with MOX (flow rate 2 mL/L/month), in duplicate, and it was aged for 18 months1. To deeply assess the implications of the ageing stage, it is important to study the shelf life (SL) of aged spirits, which reflects the effect of opening the bottle on the characteristics of the product. By definition, the SL of a food or beverage is the period during which the product maintains its microbiological safety and sensory characteristics under certain storage conditions3. As aged wine spirit is an alcoholic beverage with a high ethanol content and low pH, it is considered to be microbiologically stable and, as far as we know, does not have a determined SL. The objective of this study was to verify whether the SL of WS is influenced or not by the ageing technology used. Thus, some physicochemical characteristics – acidity (total-TA, fixed-FA and volatile-VA), total dry extract (DE) – were analysed by the OIV methods, and total polyphenol index (TPI)1, in duplicate, 11 months after opening of the bottle. The results showed that the WSs produced by alternative technology with chestnut wood had a longer SL than those produced by the traditional one, based on non- significant differences between sampling times for variables highly correlated with the product’s quality: DE (t0 – 1.70 ± 0.08; t11 – 1.73 ± 0.05; p-value – 0.6070) and TPI (t0 – 46.08 ± 2.94; t11 – 45.66 ± 3.88; p-value – 0.8256). In summary, these first results suggest that SL is influenced by the ageing technology and the kind of wood used.

References

1. Canas, S.; Caldeira, I.; Anjos, O.; Belchior, A.P. (2019). Phenolic profile and colour acquired by the wine spirit in the beginning of ageing: Alternative technology using micro-oxyenation vs. traditional technology. LWT, 111, 260-269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2019.05.018
2. Lourenço, S.; Anjos, O.; Caldeira, I.; Oliveira-Alves, S.; Santos, N.; Canas, S. (2022). Natural blending as a novel technology for the production process of aged wine spirits: potential impact on their quality. Appl. Sci., 12, 10055. https://doi.org/10.3390/app121910055
3. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Code of Hygienic Practice for Refrigerated Packaged Foods with Extended Shelf Life CAC RCP 46-1999-1. Available online: https://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/sh-proxy/zh/?lnk=1&url=https%253A%252F%252Fworkspace.fao.org%252Fsites%252Fcodex%252FStandards%252FCXC%2B46-1999%252FCXC_046e.pdf