Impact of oak ( Q. pyrenaica and Q. pubescens ) and cherry ( P. avium ) wood chip contact on phenolic composition and sensory profile evolution of red wines during bottle storage

The majority of published work has studied the impact of wood chips on red wine composition by conducting analyses during wood chip contact or immediately after the removal of chips from wine. Less attention has been directed at the potential influence of prior chip-wine contact on the further phenolic and sensory evolution of red wines during bottle storage. Therefore, this work focuses on the evolution over a period of 18 months of several phenolic parameters and sensory characteristics of bottled Touriga Nacional red wines that had previously been in contact with toasted wood chips from cherry (Prunus avium) and two oak species (Quercus pyrenaica and Quercus pubescens) during 30 days of pre-bottling storage. Various global phenolic parameters, colour properties, individual anthocyanin content and sensory profile of the wines were studied at 6, 12 and 18 months of bottle storage. The results showed less decrease in the phenolic composition and red colour of wines which had prior contact with oak chips, as well as a less developed brown colour during bottle storage, compared to the wine previously in contact with cherry chips and the control wine. In addition, wine previously in contact with cherry chips always showed an evolution similar to the control wine. From a sensory point of view, the wines previously in contact with oak wood chips showed a tendency for higher aroma scores for “vanilla” and “coconut” descriptors and lower scores for “brown colour” during bottle storage than wines previously in contact with cherry chips and the control wine. The outcomes of this research could be of practical interest to winemakers since they could improve the knowledge of the impact of prior contact with wood chips in the future evolution of the red wines during bottle storage.