Recently, the prevention of phenolic off-flavors ('phénolé') has become the focus in red wine making. We investigated the frequency of phénolé in 386 samples of commercial red wines produced in Japan. Almost 80% of the samples contained phénolé at a concentration of 0.100mg/ℓ. We think that most of the red wines produced in Japan are of high quality and contain minimal phénolé. The yeast strains belonging to the genus Brettanomyces were detected in some wine samples that contained high concentrations of phénolé. These wine samples also showed high pH values.
