Alcohol is fundamental to the character of wine, yet too much can put a wine off-balance. A wine is regarded to be well balanced if its alcoholic strength, acidity, sweetness, fruitiness and tannin structure complement each other so that no single component dominates on the palate. Balancing a wine's positive fruit flavours with the optimal absolute and relative concentration of alcohol can be ...

Forchlorfenuron is a synthetic phytohormone with cytokinin-like activity used worldwide as a plant growth regulator to increase fruit size in a number of crops, mostly in kiwifruit and grape vines. A monoclonal antibody-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the determination of forchlorfenuron has been characterized and optimized. The selected immunoreagents afforded a highly sele...

Pawpaw, banana and watermelon are tropical fruits with short shelf-lives under the prevailing temperatures and humid conditions in tropical countries like Nigeria. Production of wine from these fruits could help reduce the level of post-harvest loss and increase variety of wines. Pawpaw, banana and watermelon were used to produce mixed fruit wines using Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolated from pa...

The composition and changes of the fungal population and of the metabolites present in grapes and in ferments of Vitis vinifera L. cv. Corvina, one of the major components of the Amarone musts, were dissected aiming at the identification of constant characteristics possibly influenced by the productive process. The fungal populations and metabolomic profiles were analyzed in three different vin...

The alcoholic fermentation of Savatiano must variety was initiated under laboratory conditions and monitored daily with a gas sensor array without any pre-treatment steps. The sensor array consisted of eight interdigitated chemocapacitors (IDCs) coated with specific polymers. Two batches of fermented must were tested and also subjected daily to standard chemical analysis. The chemical compositi...

The objective of this paper is to investigate the technological usefulness of selected industrial wine yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces bayanus and their intraand interspecific hybrids responsible for excessively acidic musts. The stability of yeast fermentation profiles in apple musts was assessed after 90–170 generations, following previous subculturing under aerobic or anaer...

The concentration of biogenic amines and free amino acids was studied in 102 Portuguese wines and 18 musts from Alentejo demarcated (D.O.C.) regions. Most wines were commercial, except for 38 monovarietals obtained by micro vinification. Musts from the varieties used to produce the latter wines were also studied. Both biogenic amines and free amino acids were analyzed by HPLC using fluorescence...

In this study, the fully ripe fruits of Melodorum fruticosum Lour. were evaluated as material for red wine production. The effects of juice-to-water ratio (1:3 and 1:5v/v) and initial total soluble solids (18 and 20oBrix) on physico-chemical and sensory characteristics of musts and wines were examined. The results showed that during fermentation for 10 days the total soluble solids of all musts...

Wine and fermenting musts are grape products widely consumed worldwide. Since the presence of mycotoxin-producing fungi may greatly compromise their quality characteristics and safety, there is an increasing need for relatively rapid "user friendly" quantitative assays to detect fungal contamination both in grapes delivered to wineries and in final products. Although other fungi are most freque...

Vineyard- and winery-associated lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from two major PDO regions in Greece, Peza and Nemea, were surveyed. LAB were isolated from grapes, fermenting musts, and winery tanks performing spontaneous malolactic fermentations (MLF). Higher population density and species richness were detected in Nemea than in Peza vineyards and on grapes than in fermenting musts. Pediococcus pen...