Revisiting the use of pectinases in enology: A role beyond facilitating phenolic grape extraction

Abstract

With the objective of improving both the extraction of phenolic compounds from grapes and their maintenance in the final wine, we compared the effect of favoring phenolic extraction with a pectolytic-based maceration enzyme with that of favoring both phenolic extraction and the partial elimination of the suspended material using a pectolytic-based clarification enzyme. The phenolic composition of the final wines and those adsorbed to the precipitated lees were analyzed. Both enzymes increased wine color intensity and phenolic content, but the best results were observed when the clarification enzyme was used. This enzyme generated the largest losses of phenolics bound to precipitated lees. However, this resulted in a positive effect, the precipitation of lees rich in phenolic compounds probably created a pronounced gradient of phenolic compounds from grapes to must/wine and better chromatic characteristics in the final wine, compared with the wine made using a traditional maceration enzyme.

Keywords: Anthocyanins; Lees; Pectolytic enzymes; Phenolic content; Tannins; Wine.