Influence of Wine Chemical Compounds on the Foaming Properties of Sparkling Wines

Abstract

The foam of a sparkling wine is a key parameter of its quality, and the main characteristic differentiating sparkling wines from the so-called still wines. Both foam formation and duration are directly related to the chemical composition of sparkling wines. This chapter reviews the most recent studies made to determine the influence of chemical compounds on the foamability and foam stability of sparkling wines. Foam properties of sparkling wines are ruled by a large number of molecules, but some compounds seem to be more relevant than others to explain their behavior. The content of total amino acids, polysaccharides, anthocyanins, coumaric acid, and isorhamnetin showed high correlation values with foam quality parameters. The alcohol content and the concentration of acid polysaccharides, proanthocyanidins and free SO 2 are the factors which most negatively affect foam quality. A recent study, by means of prediction models, has concluded that the different forms of malvidin show the highest influence on the foamability parameters in rosé sparkling wines, followed by amino acid compounds, while foam stability model was only predicted by polysaccharides rich in arabinose and galactose. These research findings provide industry with a better understanding of the compositional factors influencing the foam quality of sparkling wines.

Bubbles, Foam Formation, Stability and Consumer Perception of Carbonated Drinks: A Review of Current, New and Emerging Technologies for Rapid Assessment and Control

“…Foam measuring methods were first developed for beer around the 1930s [78]; however, due to the increasing interest in assessing foam in carbonated beverages due to its relationship with the products' quality, some beer methods, such as Ross and Clark and Rudin, have been tested in sparkling wine [70,79]. More specific methods for sparkling wine foam assessment have been developed, such as the most widely used Mosalux method [80], which consists of an adaptation of the Rudin method measuring the interruption of a beam of ultra-red light using an infrared emitter and receiver, and is able to measure three parameters (i) maximum foam height, (ii) foam stability height and (iii) foam stability in time [81]. Another method named Computerized Assisted Viewing Equipment (CAVE) is an automated technique, which consists of a robotic pourer assisted by a computer and connected to a data recording system with three video cameras at different angles; this system is able to assess maximum foam thickness, total time of pouring, minimum and maximum height of foam, and velocity of foam and liquid [82].…”

Chitosan in Sparkling Wines Produced by the Traditional Method: Influence of Its Presence during the Secondary Fermentation

“…Those authors demonstrated that released proteins from yeast cell autolysis would improve foam development and stability in wines by reducing surface tension and increasing viscosity. Furthermore, in addition to proteins, amino acids have also been considered as foaming agents [ 37 ]. Their action is associated with the positive charge that these molecules carry in acidic wine conditions, resulting in the presence of both hydrophilic and hydrophobic groups.…”

“…As with proteins, this favours the retention of amino acids in the air–liquid interphase, improving wine foamability [ 38 ]. Amines have been found to behave in a similar way [ 37 ].…”

Properties of Wine Polysaccharides

“…MP also affect the foam quality of sparkling wines [64,65,[124][125][126]. Specifically, these molecules play a major role in foam stabilization [65,127], particularly the MP with low content of protein (5%) [127].…”