Have the best Bordeaux wines been drunk already? A reflection on the transient nature of terroir, using case study Australia

Under standard wine tasting conditions, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) responsible for the wine’s bouquet progressively invade the glass headspace above the wine surface. Most of wines being complex water/ethanol mixtures (with typically 10-15 % ethanol by volume), gaseous ethanol is therefore undoubtedly the most abundant VOC in the glass headspace [1]. Yet, gaseous ethanol is known to have a multimodal influence on wine’s perception [2]. Of particular importance to flavor perception is the effect of ethanol on the release of aroma compounds into the headspace of the beverage [1].

All about “Australian grapevine stories”

Varietal flavor is commonly known as the aromatic character of a wine in which the aroma of a particular grape variety predominates. However, not all varieties present particularly pronounced aromas. Therefore, different methods are constantly sought to enhance the aroma of wines with neutral aromatic characteristics, such as the use of glycosidases (1), certain yeast strains (2) or maceration with different agricultural products. In this work, aiming to improve the sensory profile together with the diversification of this product, white wines, derived from a neutral grape variety, were elaborated with the addition of mango peel by-products.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the most commonly used yeast species in winemaking. The recent research showed that non-Saccharomyces yeasts as fermentation starters show numerous beneficial features and can be utilized to reduce wine alcoholic strength, regulate acidity, serve as bioprotectants, and finally improve wine aromatic complexity. The majority of published studies on this topic investigated the influence of sequential or co-inoculations of non-Saccharomyces and S. cerevisiae yeasts on the aroma of final wine.

In this work, an innovative analytical method has been proposed for fast and reliable in-line analysis of tannins in wines; the method is fast, does not require sample preparation and is based on the selective reactivity of tannins in a mixture containing proteinaceous matter (i.e. gelatin), under pH 3.5, resulting in the formation of white cloudiness.