The influence of post fermentative addition of American barrel-shoot wastes on phenolic composition and chromatic quality of Syrah red wines has been evaluated as an environmentally sustainable alternative to the conventional winemaking for avoiding the common color loss of red wines elaborated in warm climates. American oak wood byproducts added were previously classified by hyperspectral image analysis according to the amount of phenolic compounds transferred to the extraction media. After that, wines were elaborated under different maceration conditions by applying only one proportion of wood (12 g L-1) and two different maceration procedures (simple and double addition) and were compared with a traditionally macerated Syrah red wine (CW, no wood addition). Results proved the effectiveness of the moderate postfermentative addition of oak wood byproducts to stabilize the color of wines and to provoke lower color modification along the time, producing color wines chromatically more stable for a better aging. In the case of double addition, the adsorption of the pigments during the maceration presents a stronger effect on the color than copigmentation and polymerization by cause of the copigments extracted from the wood.
Keywords: anthocyanins; byproducts; color; phenolic compounds; wine; wood.