Impact of the contact time of different oak wood chips on red wine phenolic composition evolution after bottling

Abstract

The main object of the present work was to evaluate the potential influence of the oak wood chips-wines contact time (30 and 60 days) on the evolution of the red wine phenolic composition during storage in bottle. Thus, global phenolic composition, color parameters, and individual anthocyanins of bottled red wines that had previously been in contact with oak wood chips during different times were analyzed. The results obtained demonstrates that in general, after 6 months of bottle storage, red wines with a previous oak wood chips contact time showed a more evident decrease on anthocyanin content, independently of the oak wood chips species used and toasting level. This tendency was also confirmed by the decrease in the values obtained for color intensity and a∗ (redness) CIELab coordinate value. However, a positive impact of oak wood chips contact time on wine hue color and b∗ (yellowness) CIELab coordinate values, was detected. Thus, after 6 months of bottle storage, red wines that were in a previous contact with oak wood chips (particularly during 60 aging days), exhibited lower color hue and b∗ values compared with control wine (without any oak wood chips contact).