Improvement of the foamability of sparkling base wines by the addition of Acacia gums

Abstract

In sparkling wine, foam characteristics are one of the major attributes. The foam quality depends on wine components. Bentonite is added to the base wine to facilitate the riddling process, but causes a loss of foamability. Acacia gum can be used as additive in wine. We have studied if the addition of Acacia senegal gum (AsenG), Acacia seyal gum (AseyG) and different AsenG fractions could improve the foamability of different base wines treated with bentonite. The foamability differs depending on the gum or the gum fraction treatment but also on the wine, being these differences linked to some aspects of their respective compositions and molecular parameters. AsenG and AseyG increase the foamability (by Mosalux - sparging procedure), respectively, in five and seven out of eight base wines treated with bentonite. Therefore, AsenG and AseyG are potential treatments increasing the foamability of these wines.

Keywords: Acacia gum; Amino acids; Bentonite; Foamability; Polysaccharides; Sparkling wine.