Effects of high hydrostatic pressure processing on the physicochemical and sensorial properties of a red wine

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifset.2012.09.005Get rights and content

Abstract

The influence of high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) processing on the physicochemical and sensorial properties of Nero D'avola Syrah red wine from the vintage of 2010 was investigated in the present study. Wines were treated at 650 MPa for 0.25, 0.5, 1 and 2 h, respectively. HHP processing at mentioned conditions significantly (p < 0.05) affected the chromatic characteristics and the phenolic composition of Nero D'avola Syrah red wine. The color intensity of wine decreased from 8.44 to 8.01 after 2-h treatment and the tint of wine increased slightly. In the meantime, HHP led to the reduction of the contents of total phenolics, total anthocyanins, tartaric esters, flavonols and tannins in wines. Furthermore, the evolution of several wine physicochemical parameters during pressurization, such as color intensity, total phenolics, total anthocyanins, etc., was found to follow the Weibull model (R2 > 0.90). On the other hand, sensory analysis indicated that HHP processing for 2 h significantly reduced the intensities of sour and fruity odor of wine. Moreover, despite that the influence of HHP on the gustatory attributes of wine was not statistically significant (p  0.05), the intensities of sour, astringent, alcoholic and bitter tastes all increased slightly.

Industrial relevance

High hydrostatic pressure (HHP) processing is an efficient tool to inactivate undesired microorganisms in wine. In the meantime, this research paper provides scientific evidence that HHP at 650 MPa for 2 h can also affect the physicochemical and sensorial properties of wine. From a wine aging point of view, HHP can be potentially used to change the equilibrium of chemical reactions in wine and modify the organoleptic properties of wine rapidly, thus accelerating the wine aging process. Regarding the traditional oak barrel aging technology, it has several drawbacks, including a long time required for aging, a high cost of wood barrels, a large area occupied by barrels in the winery, potential microbiological contamination, limited barrel life and a storage loss due to evaporation. Therefore, the application of HHP for wine aging can benefit the winemaking industry in these mentioned aspects. On the other hand, the utilization of HHP processing is recommended to commence with the aging of wines with low aging potential. In addition, the cost of the HHP equipment should also be taken into account in its application.

Highlights

► HP processing decreased color intensity and phenolic compounds of wine. ► Intensities of sour and fruity odor were reduced after 2-h pressurization. ► HP processing slightly enhanced mouth-feel sensations of wine. ► High pressure processing can be used in wine aging.

Introduction

Wine is a kind of alcoholic beverage, which has a rich history for thousands of years. Generally speaking, the winemaking process is composed of growing and harvesting grapes, fermentation and a series of post-fermentation treatments, although it varies slightly in some regions.

In order to increase the competitiveness of the food industry, novel technologies (Sun, 1996, Sun, 1999, McDonald and Sun, 2001, Wang and Sun, 2002, Sun and Li, 2003, Cui et al., 2004, Zheng et al., 2006) have been continuously researched and developed. For the wine industry, with an aim to produce high-quality wines, reduce the manufacturing cost and destroy spoilage organisms in wines, several emerging physical technologies have been introduced during the winemaking process. To be specific, the technology of pulsed electric fields has been applied during the maceration step before alcoholic fermentation. In this way, the extraction of aromatic compounds and anthocyanins are improved and the maceration temperature can be reduced simultaneously (Puértolas et al., 2010, Puértolas et al., 2011). In the meantime, high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) technology has been proven to be effective for the destruction of undesired microorganisms in wine (Buzrul, 2012). As a result, the levels of sulfur dioxide (SO2) added to wine, which is a common antimicrobial agent in wine, can be reduced. Furthermore, several physical technologies have shown some potential to replace the traditional wood-barrel aging technology, including ultrasonic irradiation, gamma irradiation, HHP processing, nanogold photocatalyzed treatment and AC electric field treatment (Chang, 2003, Chang, 2004, Chang and Chen, 2002, Li et al., 2005, Lin et al., 2008, Zeng et al., 2008, Zhang et al., in press). Although the wood-barrel aging technology is reliable in improving wine quality, it has several disadvantages, including a large area occupied by barrels in the winery, a long time required for aging, a high cost of barrels, potential microbiological contamination, limited barrel life and a storage loss due to evaporation (Tao, García, & Sun, in press). All the mentioned technologies have been reported to shorten the wine aging time markedly, which are attracting more and more attention of winemakers and scientists. However, the detailed influence of these physical technologies on the quality of wine has not yet been elucidated.

As a kind of non-thermal processing method, HHP processing has been widely applied in the food industry. It usually employs water-based solution as a medium to transmit nearly instantaneous and isostatic pressures in the range from 0 to 800 MPa (Patterson, Quinn, Simpson, & Gilmour, 1996). HHP processing is an effective technology to increase food safety and extend their shelf life (Norton and Sun, 2008, Suthanthangjai et al., 2005, Zhang et al., 2012). Furthermore, HHP can be used to modify the physicochemical parameters of food matrices, so as to produce more healthy and nutritional products (Błaszczak et al., 2007, Chan et al., 2011). Up to now, several food products, such as fruit juices, meat products and sea foods have be successfully commercialized (Okpala, Piggott, & Schaschke, 2010). As regarded to the application of HHP on wine, most of the researches are focused on its influence on the inactivation of undesired microorganisms in wine (Buzrul, 2012). On the other hand, the chemical reactions during wine aging are expected to be influenced by HHP according to Le Chatelier's principle. The reduction in volume induced by HHP can result in the change of equilibrium of chemical reactions (Norton & Sun, 2008). For this reason, HHP can be potentially used to affect chemical reactions in wine and accelerate wine aging process. To our best knowledge, Mok et al. (2006) evaluated the sensory quality of HHP-treated red wines and found no differences in the sensorial attributes between HHP-treated (350 MPa for 10 min) and non-treated wines. In the meantime, Puig, Vilavella, Daoudi, Guamis, and Minguez (2003) also found that the HHP treatment of 500 MPa for 5 min was not able to alter the physicochemical properties of wine. However, Li et al. (2005) found that HHP at 300 MPa and 20 °C for 2 h produced red wines with good flavor and taste. Moreover, the study of Corrales, Butz, and Tauscher (2008) revealed that the combined temperature/pressure treatments (70 °C, 600 MPa) for 1 h affected the condensation reactions of anthocyanins. Thus, it could be concluded that the physicochemical characteristics of wines are less affected by HHP when the pressure used is lower than 600 MPa and/or the pressure holding time is less than 1 h. Nevertheless, a higher pressure (≥ 600 MPa) and/or longer pressure holding time (≥ 1 h) can potentially influence the biochemical stabilization of wine. Up to now, there is no information about the effect of HHP on the physiochemical and sensorial characteristics of red wine when the pressure exceeds 600 MPa and pressurization lasts for more than 1 h.

Therefore, the objective of this paper is to study the evolution of the physicochemical parameters of a commercial Nero D'avola Syrah red wine from the vintage of 2010 during the HHP treatment at 650 MPa for 2 h. In the meantime, a quantitative descriptive sensory analysis was performed to investigate the effect of HHP on the sensorial properties of wine.

Section snippets

Samples

A commercial red wine, Nero D'avola Syrah (93% Nero D'avola, 7% Syrah) from the vintage 2010, made in Italy was purchased from the local market in Olsztyn, Poland and used in the experiments. Generally, this type of wine was micro-oxygenated in stainless steel for a period after fermentation. Then the aging process continued in bottles. Since wines from the vintage of 2010 were the youngest one available in the market during the experiments, it was deduced that the storage time of these wines

Effect of HHP on chromatic characteristics of red wine

Color is one of the most important properties of wine, which provides a considerable amount of information about wine overall quality. The evolution of wine chromatic characteristics during HHP treatment is shown in Table 2. As can be seen, all the chromatic characteristics of wine were significantly (p < 0.05) affected by HHP. Wine color intensity decreased from 8.44 to 8.01 after 2-h treatment. In the meantime, the value of tint in all HHP-treated wines increased slightly. Color intensity and

Conclusions

HHP at 650 MPa for 2 h significantly (p < 0.05) affected most of the physicochemical parameters of the Nero D'avola Syrah red wine from the vintage of 2010. Pressurization for 2 h resulted in the reduction of color intensity of wine, as well as the contents of phenolic compounds in wine. On the other hand, sour and fruity odor of wine became weak after 2-h pressurization whereas the intensities of several gustatory attributes, including sour, astringent, alcoholic and bitter tastes, were enhanced

Acknowledgment

The authors thank the REFRESH Project that is financed in the area of “Research Potential” of the 7th Framework Programme for supporting this research. The authors are also grateful for the technical assistance from Dr. P.T. Oliag and Dr. J.F. García for calculating the CIELab parameters. Moreover, Yang Tao thanks the Chinese Scholarship Council for supporting his PhD study.

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