The use of oak chips during the ageing of a red wine in stainless steel tanks or used barrels: effect of the contact time and size of the oak chips on aroma compounds

Abstract

Background and Aims: This paper reports the influence of adding oak chips to a wine being aged either in stainless steel tanks or in used barrels on aroma compounds, comparing these wines with those aged in new barrels. Both the size of the oak chips and the length of contact time were considered. Methods and Results: Aroma compounds were analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to determine the differences in these compounds between the samples. The results showed that chips release aroma compounds into wine very rapidly, an effect that was clearly seen when they were added to the wines stored in tanks. The wines aged in new barrels continued to extract aroma compounds for a longer time, and higher concentrations were reached in these wines for most aroma compounds. Wines in used barrels with added oak chips behaved in an intermediate manner. Conclusions:Although overall quality is better in wines matured in new barrels, the use of oak chips could be considered a good choice for producing short-aged wines and for reusing used barrels under good sanitary conditions. Significance of the Study: The rapid spread of technique alternatives to oak ageing justifies studies to assess the influence of oak chips on the chemical characteristics of wines and to evaluate any differences from traditional oak ageing systems.

Phenolic and furanic compounds of Portuguese chestnut and French, American and Portuguese oak wood chips

“…In general, aging studies are focused on American and French oak chips, and few articles are devoted to the use of chips from other wood species. The effect of application of oak chips has been studied in recent years, for several beverages such as vinegar [14][15][16], ciders [17], wines [3,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] and brandies [26,27]. As far as we known, chips or tablets of chestnut have never been used or studied in wine aging.…”

Investigating the coffee flavour in South African Pinotage wine using novel offline olfactometry and comprehensive gas chromatography with time of flight mass spectrometry

“…4). Furfural in wine is oakderived, whilst 2-furanmethanol does not directly originate from oak [4,31]. In wine furfural may, chemically or microbiologically, convert to 2-furanmethanol [4].…”

“…Volatiles (e.g. oak lactones, guaiacol, 4-methylguaiacol, furfural and 5-methylfurfural) transferred into the wine produce distinctive flavours depending on the type of oak, level of toasting and seasoning [3,4]. Barrels are expensive, have a short lifetime (3-5 years) and maturation is a slow process.…”

“…Recently, as an alternative to traditional wine aging, the maturation process is accelerated by adding toasted oak chips or staves to wine kept in stainless steel tanks or used barrels [2][3][4]. By exploiting the larger surface area of these alternative oak products wood derived compounds are transferred rapidly into the wine in relative short periods compared to traditional barrel maturation.…”

“…Sample preparation techniques for isolating compounds from wine for analysis are stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) [11][12][13][14], solid phase microextraction (SPME) [3,[14][15][16][17], solid phase extraction (SPE) [18,], or liquidliquid extraction (LLE) [4,[18][19][20]. In the case of SPE or LLE, sensitivity limitations are associated with analysis of microlitre amounts of the diluted final extract.…”