Abstract
Fining agents derived from animal and mineral sources are widely used to clarify and stabilize white wines. Nevertheless, health and environmental problems are being raised, concerning the allergenic and environmental impact of some of those fining products. In this study, our aim is to validate the potential of yeast protein extracts, obtained from an alternative and safe source, naturally present in wine: oenological yeasts. Three untreated white wines were used in this work in order to evaluate the impact of these novel yeast protein extracts (YPE) in terms of the wine clarification and stabilization improvement. Two separated fining trials were thus conducted at laboratory scale and the yeast alternatives were compared with reference fining agents, obtained from mineral, animal and vegetable origins. Our results indicate that YPE were capable to promote (i) brilliance/color improvement, (ii) turbidity reduction (76–89% comparing with the untreated wines), and (iii) production of compact and homogeneous lees (44% smaller volume than obtained with bentonite). Additionally, after submitting wines to natural and forced oxidations, YPE treatments revealed (iv) different forms of colloidal stabilization, by presenting comparable or superior effects when particularly compared to casein. Altogether, this study reveals that YPE represent a promising alternative for white wine fining, since they are resultant from a natural and more sustainable origin, at present not regarded as potential allergenic according to Regulation (EC) No. 1169/2011.
Highlights
The wine industry is one of the most competitive sectors all over the world
The low protein content presented by the vegetable protein fining agent, might indicate that this product probably contains other fining compounds on its formulation
In this work we revealed the potential of novel yeast protein extracts (YPE) toward white wine clarification, stabilization, and curative processes
Summary
The wine industry is one of the most competitive sectors all over the world. innovative oenological products and techniques constantly need to be optimized in order to produce high quality wines that are able to fulfill the demanding consumers. Bentonite (montmorillonite mineral) is a non-protein fining agent that reduces the haze phenomenon in white through electrostatic adsorption to unstable proteins positively charged at wine pH (Blade and Boulton, 1988; Achaerandio et al, 2001; Sauvage et al, 2010; Pocock et al, 2011) These specific grape proteins remain in the wine until the end of fermentation, due to their highly resistance to proteases and to the low wine pH, but can aggregate into light-dispersing particles under elevated temperatures during wine storage or transportation (Waters et al, 1992; Pocock et al, 2000; Le Bourse et al, 2011; Marangon et al, 2011). Other problems involved with bentonite fining include long settling times, the associated manual handling requirements and the environmental costs for disposal of its waste (Hsu and Heatherbell, 1987; Marangon et al, 2012; Lucchetta et al, 2013)
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