Wine chemistry

Wine is a complex mixture of chemical compounds in a hydro-alcoholic solution with a pH around 4. The chemistry of wine and its resultant quality depend on achieving a balance between three aspects of the berries used to make the wine: their sugar content, acidity and the presence of secondary compounds. Vines store sugar in grapes through

• Acids in wine^[2]
• Phenolic compounds in wine^[2]
• Proteins in wine
• Sugars in wine
• Yeast assimilable nitrogen
• Minerals
• Dissolved gas
  (CO₂)
• α-terpineol^[5]
• Glutathione (reduced and oxidized)^[6][7]

• Methoxypyrazines
• Esters:^[2] Ethyl acetate is the most common ester in wine, being the product of the most common volatile organic acid — acetic acid, and the ethyl alcohol generated during the fermentation.
• glycosidases.^[11]

• Ascorbic acid
  is used during wine making
• Sulfur dioxide (SO₂), a preservative often added to wine

Gum arabic has been used in the past as fining agent.^[12]

List of additives permitted for use in the production of wine under European Union law:

• Melatonin^[13]
• Wine lactone
• Anthocyanone A, a degradation product of malvidin under acidic conditions

Coumaric acid is sometimes added to microbiological media, enabling the positive identification of Brettanomyces by smell.

sorbate

.

Fusel alcohols are a mixture of several alcohols (chiefly amyl alcohol) produced as a by-product of alcoholic fermentation.

See also

• Alcohol (drug)
• Beer chemistry
• Food chemistry
• Premature oxidation
• Congener (alcohol), such as tryptophol

Notes

1. ^
   doi:10.1146/knowable-062222-1
   . Retrieved 11 July 2022.
2. ^
   PMID 23464569
   . Retrieved 11 July 2022.
3. doi:10.1016/S0021-9673(99)01342-4
4. ^ Terpenes in the aroma of grapes and wines: A review. J. Marais, S. Afr. J. Enol. Vitic., 1983, volume 4, number 2, pages 49-58 (article)
5. ^ Inhibition of the decline of linalool and α-terpineol in muscat wines by glutathione and N-acetyl-cysteine. Papadopoulou D. and Roussis I. G., Italian journal of food science, 2001, vol. 13, no4, pages 413-419, INIST 13441184
6. doi:10.1021/jf062804p
7. doi:10.1021/jf504383g
8. ISBN 0-8412-3729-8
   .
9. S2CID 101007887
   .
10. PMID 19817422
    .
11. doi:10.1016/S0141-0229(03)00179-0
    .
12. ^ Vivas N, Vivas de Gaulejac N, Nonier M.F and Nedjma M (2001). "Incidence de la gomme arabique sur l'astringence des vins et leurs stabilites colloidales" [Effect of gum arabic on wine astringency and colloidal stability]. Progres Agricole et Viticole (in French). 118 (8): 175–176.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
13. S2CID 8034935
    .
14. ISBN 0-932664-69-5
15. ^ Brettanomyces Monitoring by Analysis of 4-ethylphenol and 4-ethylguaiacol Archived 2008-02-19 at the Wayback Machine at etslabs.com

References

• Comprehensive Natural Products II — Chemistry and Biology, chapter 3.26 – Chemistry of Wine, volume 3, pages 1119–1172. Véronique Cheynier, Rémi Schneider, Jean-Michel Salmon and Hélène Fulcrand,
  doi:10.1016/B978-008045382-8.00088-5

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wine chemistry.

• Wine Chemistry and Biochemistry, by M. Victoria Moreno-Arribas, Carmen Polo and María Carmen Polo, on Google books
• Mass Spectrometry in Grape and Wine Chemistry, by Riccardo Flamini and Pietro Traldi, on Google books
• Antoine de Saporta La Chimie des vins : les vins naturels, les vins manipulés et falsifiés (1889). Google Books