Published in Scientific Papers. Series B, Horticulture, Vol. LXVIII, Issue 1
Written by Arina Oana ANTOCE, George Adrian COJOCARU
Pea protein is a plant-based fining agent recently approved for the clarification of musts and wines. Vegetal proteins are intended to replace the classical fining agents based on proteins of animal origin or the synthetic polymer polyvinylpolypyrrolidone (PVPP), which both proved very efficient for partial removal of polyphenols, but are less accepted by vegetarian or eco-friendly consumers. As an alternative, pea protein can be used for clarification either alone or in complex products containing other non-animal materials. This paper focuses on the evaluation of several pea protein based fining agents used to clarify the must of Tămâioasa românească, an aromatic grape variety which is vinified with a short maceration, leading to wines with a higher content of polyphenols. Variants with no fining as well as PVPP fining were also produced. For all fining variants, the clarification was performed both with oxygen protection and in the presence of oxygen. UV-visible spectroscopy was used to determine parameters related to the content of phenols in the resulted wines (total phenol index as OD 280 nm, flavonoids as OD 365 nm, CIELab parameters and colour differences), after must clarification and completion of the fermentation.
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