Influence of skin maceration time on the proanthocyanidin content of red wines

Abstract

This paper studies the influence of different maceration times (5, 10 and 20 days) during the elaboration of Monastrell, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon wines on the proanthocyanidin composition and sensory characteristics of the resulting wines. Significant differences were found between wines elaborated with different maceration times. The different maceration times affected the qualitative and quantitative proanthocyanidin composition of the resulting wines, the total proanthocyanidin content increasing with the maceration time. The percentage of skin-derived proanthocyanidins was always higher than that of seed-derived proanthocyanidins for all the maceration time assayed, although the contribution of seed proanthocyanidins to wine composition increased for the longest maceration time. However, the study also shows that differences exist between wines elaborated with the same maceration time but with different varieties, indicating the importance of two factors, the initial concentration of grape phenolic compounds and their extractability, on the final concentration of wine proanthocyanidins. In this way, the wines obtained from Syrah had the highest proanthocyanidin content compared with the corresponding wines from Cabernet Sauvignon or Monastrell, even though Syrah grapes presented the lowest proanthocyanidin content in skins and similar seed proanthocyanidin content to Cabernet and Monastrell grapes.