Wine color research

The trends in wine pigment development seen above for the SO2 study have been consistently reported in MOX trials. These include a greater formation of sulfite-resistant pigments, a more rapid loss of monomeric anthocyanins, and a greater retention of wine color. Higher color intensity was one of the findings reported in early research work on the MOX... 

Amerine, M. A., and Winkler, A. J. 1941. Color in California Wines. Food Research 6,1. 

Del Alamo Sanza, M., Dominguez, l.N. Garcia Merino, S. (2004). Influence of different aging systems and oak woods on aged wine color and anthocyanin composition. European Food Research and Technology, 219,124-132. 

Muller-Spath (1977) was the first to contest the need to sulfite white juice before alcoholic fermentation. His research clearly showed that adding pure oxygen to non-sulfited juice before clarification improves the stability of white wine color without producing oxidation-type flaws. This process, called hyperoxidation or hyperoxygenation, consists of oxidizing juice polyphenols to precipitate them during clarification and eliminate them during alcoholic fermentation. 

Anthocyanins are ubiquitous in the plant kingdom. They are responsible for many of the orange, red, blue, violet, and magenta colors. They have been the object of intensive research from a taxonomic point of view and this has resulted in about 275 known structures and about 5,000 of the chemically closely related flavonoid compounds. Their use as colorants dates back to antiquity since the Romans used highly colored berries to augment the color of wine. 

SdenceDaily. King Tut Liked Red Wine. News release, April 3, 2005. Available onhne. URL http //www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/ 03/050326001121.htm. Accessed May 28,2009. Researchers identify the color of wine in ancient samples. 

Since phenolic compounds occur in many fruits and most of them contribute to color and taste, phenolic analysis of fruits has been an active research area, especially in apple, grape, and citrus fruits and their products, such as juice, cider, and wine. 

For nearly four centuries, one of the most active fields of research on biomaterials has been the search for blood substitutes. Not long after the English physician William Harvey (1578-1657) discovered the process by which blood circulates in the body, people began searching for substitutes for natural blood for treatment of those who had been wounded or had lost blood in some other way. At first, those efforts had little scientific basis and centered on certain apparently logical connections. For example, wine was sometimes used to replace human blood because blood and wine have a similar color. Milk was also used as a blood substitute because both milk and blood are naturally occurring bodily fluids. 

Continuously, researchers in oenoiogy, both chemists and biologists, appropriate the most efficient analytical methods and data to conduct their research. New molecules of wine aroma, color and flavor have been identified. Sensory analysis,... 

Other studies have described similar results to those found in our research, that is, that ellagitannins are more abundant in French oak (26) and therefore, in wines matured in French oak barrels. So, the presence of ellagitannins enhances the color of wine and increases absorbance at 620 nm by fevoring anthocyanin-procyanidin type tannin condensations with acetaldehyde (purple pigments) and that foct also helps to explain the higher PVPP index values of wines fix)m new French oak barrels. They also prevent the development of brick-yellow color by preventing the oxidation of phenolic compounds (24). 

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