During the Symposium on Natural Pigments & Colorants, Pr Durner will give a talk on Formation of anthocyanin-derived in red wine and their contribution to colour, mouth-feel, and astringency perception.

Pr Durner will present anthocyanin pigments formation and role in colour, mouth-feel and astringency of red wine, during the symposium on food & beverages applications at Malta Polyphenols World Congress 2015.

“Key quality parameters of red wines are colour, mouth-feel, and astringency perception. All three are, more or less, driven by polyphenolic compounds originating from grape tissues or wooden barrels. Due to their high reactivity, most of the polyphenolic molecules, including flavanols, anthocyanins, and ellagitannins, undergo reactions with other phenolic moieties or wine constituents during vinification process and red wine aging. Resulting polymeric pigments and anthocyanin derivatives are crucial for the colour stability of red wines. Polymeric pigments in red wines reveal higher colour stability with an increasing molecular weight. Acetaldehyde-linked flavanol-anthocyanin adducts tend to exhibit purple colour with an increasing number of interflavanoid bridges. Besides molecule size, colouring properties are also determined by the number of anthocyanins incorporated in polymeric pigments. A high degree of anthocyanins moieties in tannic structures guarantees high intensity in red colour. Recent studies address anthocyanin molecules incorporated in polymeric pigments being also responsible for a balanced mouth-feel and less unripe astringency perception. From the perspective of a winemaker, the targeted production of these, positively associated, pigments is essential to produce red wines of high quality. The talk will include enological practises to improve and stabilise red wine colour such as barrel aging, micro-oxygenation, and the use enological tannins and oak chips.”

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