Enological Parameters and Total Phenolic Compounds in Fetească Neagră Wines Aged with Oak Chips

Abstract

Aging process in winemaking is a crucial component in defining the quality of resulted products. In the last years alternative practices (oak chips) started to become more useful, due to their benefits. In this paper we study the impacts of various oak chips on the red wines enological parameters and phenolic compounds. Feteasca neagra variety grape (V.vinifera) was growing in North‐East Romania wine region and harvested in 2013. Thirteen technologic variants followed the same classical winemaking process and were separated into a control sample (without chips) and samples aged with various types of oak chips for of 1.5 and 3 months. Phenolic compounds we determinated using spectrophotometric measurements to evaluate the total quantity of anthocyans and the total polyphenolic index. Wine constitutes a dynamic system, in continuous evolution, in which numerous reactions involving polymerization and condensation take place between its phenolic compounds during the aging process. These reactions, undoubtedly affect its structure and, very probably, its phenolic compounds. In our study, phenolic compounds quantities presents a low variation among samples, but are influenced by the time of aging, decreasing at 3 months. Cluster analysis of Feteasca neagra wines differentiated the variants in two major groups (aged wines at 1.5 months and aged wines at 3 months).