Phenolic Off-flavor ‘Phénolé’ and its Prevention in Domestic Red Wines

Abstract

Recently, the prevention of phenolic off-flavor ‘phénolé’ has become a focus in red winemaking. We first investigated the frequency of phénolé in samples of commercial red wines produced in Japan. Almost 80% of the samples contained phénolé at a concentration of less than 0.100mg/L. Thus, it was clarified that most of the red wines produced in Japan are of high quality and contain minimal phénolé. Yeast cells belonging to the genus Brettanomyces were present in some wine samples that contained high concentrations of phénolé. These wine samples also showed high pH values. Furthermore, screening, isolation and characterization of phenol-producing yeast strains were performed during the red wine production process in Japan. Some yeast isolates were isolated from red wine samples that were collected from barrels. Using standard morphological and biochemical tests, these isolates were identified as belonging to the genus Brettanomyces. The isolates were inhibited by 0.6mg/L molecular sulfur dioxide. Further studies focusing on the prevention of Brettanomyces contamination are expected.