Quantification of major grape polysaccharides (Tempranillo v.) released by maceration enzymes during the fermentation process

The influence of commercial enzymes on wine polysaccharide content was studied. Tempranillo wines were made using commercial maceration enzyme preparations along with controls. The analytical method for the quantification of wine polysaccharides was carried out by a multistep procedure. Wine-soluble polysaccharides were isolated by wine concentration polysaccharides precipitation with an acid-alcohol medium and separation of each polysaccharide family by high resolution size-exclusion chromatography on a Superdex-75 HR column. The glycosyl-residue compositions of the fractions obtained were determined by gas chromatography with flame ionisation and mass spectrometry of their trimethylsilyl-ester O-methyl glycosides after acidic methanolysis and derivatization. The content of each fraction was estimated from the concentration of individual glycosyl residues that are characteristic of well-defined wine polysaccharides. The analytical method proposed had good sensitivity, repeatability, reproducibility and accuracy. Soluble polysaccharides in wine were essentially composed of grape cell wall polysaccharides: arabinogalactans and arabinogalactan-proteins (38-41%), and rharymogalacturonans-II (38-46%). Yeast mannans and mannoproteins were also present but in smaller proportions (14-19%). Wines treated with commercial enzymes had larger concentrations of arabinogalactans, arabinogalactan-proteins and rhamnogalacturonans-II than control wines, but the content of marmans and mannoproteins was similar in both wines. This indicated that the commercial enzymes hydrolysed grape pectic polysaccharides during the maceration-fermentation stage but had no influence on yeast parietal polysaccharides. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.