LEES AGING INCREASES SULPHUR AROMATICS

Thursday 25 January 2007

It is widely known that leaving wines on their lees can result in alterations occurring to their levels of volatile compounds. Scientists at the Universidade de Vigo in Ourense, Spain subjected wine made from four different varieties of white grapes to different treatments in order to monitor this activity.

After fermentation, the wine was divided into four lots, the first one being clarified and the other three left in contact with lees which were either natural or commercially obtained.

After two and seven months, gas chromatography and sensory evaluations were used to examine the wine samples’ aromatic composition. Overall, there were significant increases in the levels of all aromatic compounds after two months of lees contact and also after seven months.

A panel tasted the wine samples and rated the intensity of seven aromatic descriptors for each one. It was found that compared with the model wines, those with the longer maturing time suffered a decrease in their floral and fruity aromas and an increase in their sulphurous quality.

European Food Research and Technology 224(4):405-413, 2007 Effect of the contact with fermentation-lees or commercial-lees on the volatile composition of white wines / Bautista R, Fernández E, Falqué E

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