Published in Scientific Papers. Series B, Horticulture, Vol. LXVI, Issue 1
Written by George Adrian COJOCARU, Bogdan Emil ILIE, Arina Oana ANTOCE
Skin contact for aromatic grapes at low temperatures is essential for the quality of the resulted wines, Sometimes, even non-aromatic grapes can benefit from skin contact so that the wines obtained achieve the desired mouthfeel and aroma. In this study we have evaluated the effect of the pre-fermentative skin contact on a blend of white grapes consisting of 80% of a non-aromatic Romanian variety, Feteasca alba, and 20% of the aromatic variety Muscat Ottonel. The macerations were conducted at controlled temperature for 6 hours (T6) and 12 hours (T12), while for control, no skin contact was allowed (T0). The effects of maceration on the CIELab parameters and total polyphenols (TPI) of resulted wines were evaluated. The wines with 12 hours of maceration (T12) were significantly different from the samples with no maceration (T0) and samples with short time skin contact (T6). The colour differences can be easily perceived by an inexperienced observer, as long as the total colour differences ΔE values (T12-T0) = 3.90 ± 0.98 and, respectively, (T12-T6) = 2.44 ± 0.97. The TPI results suggest that the skin contact period, favours more polyphenol extraction, but also promotes oxidation of polyphenols and then their precipitation.
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