The effect of cold maceration with and without sulphur dioxide on pinot noir wine

Abstract

The effects of varying levels of sulphur dioxide (SO₂) on the cold maceration process was investigated with Pinot noir (Vitis vinifera L.) wine. The effects of these varying levels on the wines composition and colour parameters were examined. Cold maceration is a technique whereby grapes are crushed and placed at low temperatures (4 - lO°C) in the presence 50 - 150 mgL⁻¹ SO₂. This process is believed to provide a medium for the extraction of water soluble phenolic compounds, rather than the alcoholic extraction employed in normal fermentations. The extraction of these phenolic compounds was monitored from the juice through to six months of bottle age. The changes were measured using both Spectrophotometric and High Performance Liquid Chromatographic (HPLC) procedures. Cold maceration wines were found to be not significantly different to the control wine in all compositional parameters other than titrateable acidity which was found to be less than the control for all the cold maceration wines. The unsulphured cold maceration wine was not significantly different from the control wine in any of the spectral measurements except natural degree of ionisation, in which it was higher, and total phenolics, in which it was lower. These results indicate that the cold maceration process alone does not alter the extraction of phenolic compounds. The HPLC analysis of the wine confirmed the spectral results indicating that their were no significant differences in the levels of extraction of anthocyanins. The sulphured cold maceration wines were significantly greater than the control in visible colour, colour density, total anthocyanins, natural degree of ionisation, ionised anthocyanins and total phenolics. These results followed similar patterns with wine ageing, at six months these wines were still significantly greater in all the measurements apart from natural degree of ionisation. The results for the sulphured cold maceration wines indicates that SO₂ is acting as a solvent for the extraction of phenolic compounds including anthocyanins. The 50 mgL⁻¹ SO₂ cold maceration wine had similar colour and phenolic content to the 100 mgL⁻¹ SO₂ cold maceration wine at bottling, at six months the 50 mgL⁻¹ SO₂ cold maceration wine still retained a similar colour to the 100 mgL⁻¹ SO₂ cold maceration wine but had vastly reduced anthocyanin content. This indicates that for the grapes utilised in this study the most appropriate level of addition at cold maceration would be 50 mgL⁻¹ of SO₂. With grapes of differing phenolic content the level of addition required will vary.