The chemistry of winemaking and wine development is complex and not fully understood. However, it is clear that oxygen exerts a significant influence during most if not all stages of the process.
In particular, the availability of small but controlled amounts of oxygen appears to have a beneficial impact on the long-term aging of fine wines.
Some good progress is being made in determining the reasons for the importance of oxygen and identifying the many factors that can enhance or dilute its impact—including the closure.
Claims of 1000-fold variability in the oxygen transmission rates of natural cork-based closures have been shown to be in error by more recent OTR studies and careful analysis of the results of various closure trials.
The phenomenon of ‘random oxidation’ is increasingly acknowledged as being the result of a range of bottling line factors rather than solely due to the properties of cork closures.
However, more research is required to improve our ability to control these factors in the way that modern winemaking demands.
As closure research and development projects increasingly focus on the role of the closure in the development of wine in the bottle, it is timely to consider some recent results in the context of the overall importance of oxygen at all stages of winemaking.
The seasonal character of harvests limits winemaking considerably, especially oenological research. Thus, conserving sterile musts during the whole year to carry out experiments is certainly a very...
This video covers the recent developments in wine protein instability, including the most current version of the mechanism describing how protein instability forms in white wines. - The methods for...
Video Extract from Fernando Zamora's presentation at Macrowine
Protection against spoilage microorganism is one of the main effects of SO2. How can we reduce its addition to a minimum or even totally avoid its use? Fernando Zamora talsk about a few products su...
Wessel du Toit | University of Stellenbosh – South Africa
High levels of dissolved oxygen in wine can lead to unwanted oxidation. Dissolved oxygen levels in wine are often reduced by sparging with an inert gas such as N2. However, the factors that influen...
In the keynote speech given at Enoforum 2022, Antonio Morata talked about emerging non-thermal technologies applied to oenology and their impact on the extraction of phenolic compounds from grapes,...
Hranilovic A. et al., ISVV, University of Bordeaux (France) | The University of Adelaide (Australia)
Interesting and sustainable oenological solution to combat the lack of acidity in wines and microbial threats: bio- acidification with some strains of Lachancea thermotolerans through the productio...
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