Stability of SO2: recent observations and practical implications

The oxygen present in the bottle is the sum of different factors: dissolved oxygen, head space and oxygen that permeates through the cap. These factors determine the variability and the keeping of the wine during storage and highlight the importance of bottling in controlled and reproducible conditions.

In the first video seminar, Elisa Martelli analyzes and quantifies the critical points of each of these factors and presents the different systems for their control through the measurement of oxygen, carbon dioxide, color and polyphenolic component of the wine.

But not all wines consume the same amount of oxygen at the same speed. The presentation of Maurizio Ugliano shows research aimed at identifying wines that suffer from lower antioxidant efficacy. The reactions between oxygen and wine, the main mechanisms of consumption of SO2 and the use of electrochemical methods for the analysis of the presence of easily usable oxidizable molecules in the cellar are described.

Finally, it illustrates the recent research that has allowed us to discover, through metabolic approaches, new reactions able to induce the consumption of SO2 and to study why wines that consume oxygen more quickly seem to lose less SO2.

The reports reproduced in these films were presented at the 10th edition of Enoforum (Vicenza, 16-18 May 2017) within the module organized in collaboration with Nomacorc.