In a context of increasing attention to the shelf life of white wines and the search for eco-compatible production, innovation is focused on understanding the complex mechanisms involved in the chemistry of wine oxidation.

There are several natural constituents of wine that participate in oxidation reactions.

In her presentation at Enoforum 2024, Maria Nikolantonaki will address several scientific tools used to characterize the antioxidant metabolome of white wine. This metabolome determines the oxidative stability of white wines and begins to be expressed as early as the beginning of the winemaking process. To this end, the impact of pressing and barrel aging conditions on the antioxidant metabolome of yeasts in Chardonnay wines during 3 consecutive vintages was studied.

Remi Schneider will focus on the development of yeast derivatives that help improve the oxidative stability of white wines, tested under different conditions: temperature variations, presence or absence of oxygen and sulfur dioxide. Thanks to the collaboration with the University of Burgundy, a formulation of different yeast derivatives composed of 80% inactivated yeast and 20% autolysed yeast has been studied, usable not only in white wines, but also in rosé wines and base wines for sparkling wines and in wines without the addition of sulfites.