Monitoring of chemical parameters of oxygen-treated musts during alcoholic fermentation and subsequent bottle storage of the resulting wines

Abstract

The effect of hyper-oxygenation of Airen white wines on color characteristics, phenolic composition, and volatile profile has been evaluated in different processing steps, not previously reported in conjunction: musts, musts during the alcoholic fermentation, resulting young wines and after 1 year of bottle storage. Hyper-oxygenation treatment achieved a positive effect on color stabilization by means of significantly lower contents of most important phenolic compound families (hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives, benzoic acids, flavonols, and flavan-3-ols) in oxygen-treated musts in fermentation, young wines, and one-year-stored white wines. Therefore, browning was avoided in wines elaborated from hyper-oxygenated musts and their values of a* (green–red component of color) were maintained, in contrast to what occurred in control wines. With regard to volatile profile, the concentration of the majority of individual volatile compounds was significantly higher in wines derived from hyper-oxygenated musts, even after 1 year of bottle storage, especially those derived from alcoholic fermentation (alcohols: 2-methyl-1-butanol and 3-methyl-1-butanol, polar esters: ethyl lactate and ethyl glutarate, C6 alcohols: 3-methyl-1-pentanol, and acetates: 2-phenylethyl acetate). This study enhances knowledge regarding the effects of hyper-oxygenation process during and after alcoholic fermentation and 1 year of bottle aging, especially as there is scarce literature available on the subject.