Wine is
consumed all over the world everyday. Different
regions provide various grapes and styles but no matter where you are, your
wine will eventually go bad just like any other food or drink. Wine
is filled with minerals from grapes that grow from the soil. In particular, wine has iron present in it
that becomes oxidized with time. This
results in an undesirable taste and smell.
In white wine, a brownish color can result as an effect of this
oxidation as well as the depletion of key fruit flavors. The oxygen enters the bottle mainly through
the porous cork since it is usually present in the wine bottle. Often times wine is saved for additional
uses. Wine can be very expensive at
times so therefore there is a need to preserve it for as long as possible. If only there was a way to preserve the life
of our wine.
Thanks to research done by Gal
Kreitman at Penn State University, there might be an answer to our limited wine
shelf life dilemma. By adding chelation
compounds the researchers were able to bind them to the metals to prevent the
oxidation caused by the presence of iron and copper. There are two kinds of oxidation states, iron
2 and iron 3, in wine. The team at Penn
State decided to examine the chelators that would counteract the oxidation,
which included phytic acid, ethylenediaminetertraacetic acid, Ferrozine, and
bipyridne. The ligands of these
chelators allow them to bind to the central atoms of the metals. Wine preservation has been attempted in other
ways. Previous efforts have included
trying to take the metals completely out of the wine and ion exchange. Without metal there is no oxidation, but
accomplishing this is too expensive, not to mention its adverse effects on the
taste and color of the wine. Although
this research has promise in reducing the oxidation of iron and copper in wine,
it hasn’t been proved yet to be safe for humans to drink. More research is required before we can start
to drink wine with oxidation resistant chelators in it.
I am not a wine drinker, but I always assumed that aged wine was often better than freshly purchased wine. I knew that wine could go bad, but I wonder how long it takes for it to do so? It is definitely interesting that scientists are taking the time to try and preserve wine, and this may hopefully lead to ways to better preserve other forms of food and drink. Although this study seems minor, since it is currently only being applied to wine, it has the capacity to become an important tool in the war against hunger.
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