Acceleration of ageing on lees in red wines by application of ultrasounds

Resumen

A transfer of parietal polysaccharides and mannoproteins is produced during aging on lees [1]. This transfer of compounds to wine is carried out after cell death. It comes to breakdown of polysaccharides from cell wall (yeast autolysis). This technique increases the density in wines [2] and gives more body and structure. Interactions between yeast polysaccharides and wine tannins will result in decrease of tannic perception (decrease of astringency). Increase of varietal characteristics is produced. The main disadvantage of the ageing on lees is the time that the process requires. Usually, nine months are necessary at least for obtaining a noticeable effect in wines. The objective of this work is the acceleration of this process using ultrasounds to lyse the yeast cell wall. In addition, the influence of this technique in different red wine quality parameters was studied.