EFFECT OF PREFERMENTATIVE COLD MACERATION ON THE AROMA AND PHENOLIC PROFILES OF A MERLOT RED WINE.

The effect of prefermentative cold maceration (PCM) on Merlot winemaking was studied in order to evaluate its influence on the content of phenolic and volatile compounds. The results showed that PCM increased the concentration of phenolic compounds in Merlot red wine. This is particularly important for the extraction of anthocyanins, mainly malvidine-3-glucoside, which contributes to the colour stability. PCM also increased the concentration of the volatile compounds, particularly the esters, α-terpineol, geraniol and 2-phenylethanol which are fingerprints for this wine. The application of the cold maceration process proved to be successful. In fact the concentration of the esters responsible for the typical flavour of Merlot increased by more than 20% in the PCM-wine with respect to the traditional wine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]