Wine Oxidation: Recent Revelations, Observations, and Predictions

While wine oxidation is one of the oldest problems in winemaking, it still has much current interest in the research and winemaking communities. Recent studies have demonstrated basic new information about the specific reactions and necessary catalysts in wine. Recent developments have shown that catalytic metals are essential, that the ethanol free radical is abundant in oxidized wine, that cinnamates are important antioxidants and that oxidation products are key to color development in red wine, among many new reports. Current winemaking includes deliberate use of oxygen to manage wine flavors and emerging research is likely to provide winemakers with new tools for managing the effects of wine oxidation.