High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of the riboflavin concentration in white wines for predicting their resistance to light.
This research paper describes a new application in the field of quality control of white wine. A high-performance liquid chromatography analysis of riboflavin was used together with a simple sensorial test to produce a classification of wines, rating their susceptibility to exposure to light. Based on a wide survey covering 85 commercial white wines of different varieties in three countries (Italy, Spain and Slovenia), an average value of riboflavin of 98.63 microg/l with a rather high standard deviation of 41.91 microg/l, and a normal distribution was obtained. Our statistical study of the frequency distribution of the sensorial scores of light-exposed wines by means of the Expectation-Maximization algorithm demonstrated that a large majority (71%) of these products were susceptible to the light, 31% of them belonging to the most severely affected group. Content of riboflavin was correlated with severity of appearance of the off-flavor in light-exposed white wines. These methods are directly applicable in the quality control of wine, being a valuable aid for oenologists in choosing appropriate fining protocols to reduce the appearance of the undesired "sunlight flavor" in bottled products.
Mattivi
F
F
Istituto Agrario di S. Michele, Dip. Laboratorio Analisi e Ricerche, S. Michele all'Adige, Italy. fulvio.mattivi@ismaa.it
Monetti
A
A
Vrhovsek
U
U
Tonon
D
D
Andrés-Lacueva
C
C
D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D008027:Light; D011786:Quality Control; D012256:Riboflavin / Q000032:analysis*; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D014920:Wine / Q000032:analysis*
D012256:Riboflavin