In the first year of activity of the Oxyless project, some red wines were analyzed using cyclic voltammetry in collaboration with Piergiorgio Comuzzo, Rosanna Toniolo and Franco Battistutta of Di4A (Department of Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences) of the University of Udine.
Voltammetry is an electroanalytical technique based on the measurement of the current passing through an electrode immersed in wine and subjected to a potential variation. The most widely used variants in oenology are linear scanning voltammetry (LSV) and cyclic voltammetry (CV). In cyclic voltammetry, the potential of the electrode is increased linearly to a maximum value and then returned to the initial value (triangular scanning). If, in solution, there are electroactive species, susceptible to oxidation or reduction in the applied potential range, an increase in the measured current is observed, which will be proportional to the concentration of the species itself. The voltammetry therefore provides qualitative-quantitative indications of the present chemical species.
A first analysis of the data shows that the acquired voltammetric profiles are in line with the chemical analysis performed by Isvea; the study is still in a preliminary phase, but from the first evidence it seems that some areas of the voltammogram can be related to the trend of some discriminating analytical parameters. In fact, through the PCA analysis it was found that the wines analyzed are characterized by a different response in the voltammetric intervals between 250 and 600 mV, clustering in a similar way both in function of the voltammetric response and the results of the chemical analysis.
Concluding, the cyclic voltammetry could allow a study of the redox systems of wines under a new perspective.
The OXYLESS project is financed within the integrated supply chain project of the Region of Tuscany in submeasure 16.2 and involves the Cantina Sociale Colli Fiorentini (leader), ISVEA and Vinidea in the operative group. It provides for the development of a rapid and economic test to determine the specific oxidability of each batch of wine, white, red or rosé in several stages of its processing.
The test will be used to assess and quantify the effects of different viticultural and oenological practices on the sensitivity of wine to oxidation with the aim of enhancing its identity and typicality; to lead to the production of innovative products, such as sparkling or sparkling wines, white or rosé, from Sangiovese grapes, as well as to the identification of good cellar practices to obtain red wines with a long commercial life using sustainable winemaking strategies that make little use of non-renewable resources.
If you want to learn more about the topic you can visit the following website www.oxyless.eu where you can also see the recording of the webinar held by Piergiorgio Comuzzo on: “Oxidation of wines: new developments and predictive potential“.
You can select manually the English subtitles on the lower part of the screen.
