Study of perceptions implicated in masking wines bitterness and selection of phenolic compounds with ability to predict bitterness

Abstract

Severa! compounds have been conelated to the perception of wines bittemess being the monomeric phenols the main responsible for eliciting this attribute. Otherwise, it has been reported in a wine reconstihltion experiment that the omission of the high molecular weight phenols bring about a decrease in the astringency perception but not in bittemess, being these compounds excluded to elicit this taste. Fmthennore, until now, any predictive model has been proposed around wine bittemess. For achieving this purpose, a wine fraction free of proanthocyanidins by means of gel penneation chromatography was obtained. An important sensory interaction was observed by means of sensory descriptive analyses between acidity and bittemess once omitted the astringent fraction. Salid phase extraction was can-ied out with the aim of eliminating the high acidity perceived that could be modifying the bittemess perception. This fraction, fi·ee of acids, was sensory and chemically analysed and was mainly described as bittemess and persistence and also slightly astlingent. For the first time a predictive model explaining the bittemess perceived was built. This model included twelve significant compounds, among them, two procyanidins, B 1 and B2, two t1avanol monomers, catechin and catechin~gallate, one flavonol, quercetin mtinoside, two phenolic acids as coutaric acid and kaempherol, four di fferent anthocyanins and the protocatechuic a cid ethyl es ter. Al! the compounds were positively correlated to bittemess except the protocatechuic acid ethyl ester. It is the first time that some of these compounds as the anthocyanins are revealed as contributors of bittemess in wines.