Influence of physical parameters on wine aroma

Wine storage - a neglected topic 

In this project, the influence of vibration, bottle position and initial headspace volume on the oxygen distribution in a wine bottle was investigated. For this purpose, a model wine was filled into 0.75 L wine bottles and stored horizontally and vertically under different vibration intensities at a constant frequency. The bottles were closed with screw caps and cork caps, using two different headspace volumes for each cap type. Our results show that vibration and the horizontal position of the bottle promoted the dissolution of oxygen from the headspace of the bottle into the wine, leading to accelerated sulfur dioxide degradation. The effect of vibration was greater for bottles stored horizontally, suggesting that a larger surface area promotes oxygen uptake into the wine. In the absence of oxygen in the headspace, vibration and bottle position showed no effect on sulphur dioxide-induced oxygen degradation. In addition, it was shown that oxygen dissolves faster under cork than under screw cap, which is due to the overpressure during corking. From this it was concluded that the vibration and the horizontal position of the bottle have a major influence on the dissolution of oxygen from the headspace of the bottle into the wine, but not on the chemical reaction of the dissolved oxygen with sulphur dioxide. The larger surface area between the headspace and the wine in horizontally stored bottles and the overpressure generated by the corking process accelerate the absorption of oxygen from the headspace of the bottle into the wine.