The impact of ultrasound, micro-oxygenation and oak wood type on the phenolic and volatile composition of a Tempranillo red wine

Abstract

The accelerated ageing of a Tempranillo red wine has been studied at pilot scale through the combined application of ultrasound, micro-oxygenation and different oak wood type chips (American, French and Spanish). The phenolic and volatile content of the aged samples and their sensory profiles have been determined. The wine samples that had been aged using micro-oxygenation, French or American oak chips, and ultrasound revealed to be similar in terms of polyphenols to those wines that had been aged without implementing this last accelerating technique. Ageing time, with a high extraction kinetics, was the most significant variable with regard to their polyphenol content. In terms of volatiles, Spanish and French oak wood wine samples showed a similar behaviour closely associated to ageing time, while American oak wood achieved a rather low enrichment in volatile constituents, resulting in a poor sensory profile of the final wines, which was particularly poor in the case of ultrasound aged wines.