The study of glycerol metabolism in the malolactic fermentation of red wines

摘要

Glycerol from wine presents a major importance from at least two different points of view; first, glycerol is considered a test substance, which tests the wine's naturalness; second, glycerol has a very important physiological role on human organism due the esterification of free fat acids from blood, determining a reduction of cholesterol content. In this paper, glycerol was determined quantitatively through the enzymatic method, before and after the malolactic fermentation, for the wine samples inoculated with commercial preparation INOFLORE R (which contains the Oenococcus oeni species) and for the wine samples that were not innoculated at which the malolactic fermentation occurred spontaneously based on the inner microflora. The results of this paper show that the glycerol degradation occurs during the malolactic fermentation especially at wine samples that were not inoculated with malolactic bacteria, at which the malolactic fermentation occurred spontaneously and uncontrolled, exclusively based on the inner microflora. After finishing the malolactic fermentation in controlled conditions, the wines had a normal evolution, fact that confirm us that the glycerol metabolization through controlled malolactic fermentation is only partial and is not accompanied by defects and diseases of wine.