Determination of total polyphenolic content in red wines by means of the combined He-Ne laser optothermal window and Folin-Ciocalteu colorimetry assay

The He-Ne laser (632.8 nm) and the concept of optothermal window (OW), a variant of the open photoacoustic cell, were combined with the Folin-Ciocalteu colorimetry assay to quantitate phenolics in four red wines. The total polyphenolic content in selected red wines varied between 786 and 1630 mg/L gallic acid equivalent (GAE) as determined by OW-Folin-Ciocalteu colorimetry, which compares well to 778 and 1614 mg/L GAE obtained for the same wines by means of classical spectrophotometry. The originality and merit of OW colorimetry used here is that, unlike what is encountered in conventional spectrometry, no intermediate dilution step is required when total polyhenolics are determined in red wine. The precision, defined as the closeness to each other of 256 replicate readings of the OW signal, is generally better than 2%.