Study of the influence caused by some maturation process (staves) on the phenolic compounds and the anthocyans from red wines

Abstract

The demand for cost-effective and simpler techniques has encouraged the development of alternative ageing systems, such as the use of oak wood pieces (oak chips, stave), that accelerate ageing, shortening the time of contact, without decreasing the quality of the wine produced. The aim of this paper is to study the influence of various stave on the red wines physical-chemical parameters and phenolic compounds, because of their positive effects on human health. Experimental material used Fetească neagră from the Suletea area, Fălciului hill, harvested in 2013. The wines content of phenolic compounds varied, depending on the stave variant (V0-martor wine, V1-stave fruité, V2-stave vanillé and V3-stave épicé). Following the vinification, four technologic variants were obtained and analyzed at 1.5 and 3 months. For characterizing the phenolic compounds, a spectrophotometric measurement was used in order to evaluate the total polyphenolic index and the total quantity of anthocyans from wines. Photometric measurements were made using Analytik Jena S 200 spectrometer (at 280 nm, respectively 520 nm). The analyses show a small variation of phenolic compounds which means that stave types don’t influence significantly their quantity. Although, we observed a quantitative decrease of phenolic compounds registrated at 3 months in comparison with samples at 1.5 months.