The Use of Chitosan As Alternative to Bentonite for Wine Fining: Effects on Heat-stability, Proteins, Organic Acids, Colour, and Volatile Compounds in an Aromatic White Wine

This investigation focuses on the use of chitosan treatment simulating a bentonite fining in order to detect any modification of the wine haze potential by simultaneously evaluating the secondary effects on untargeted fixed and volatile compounds. A significant removal of chitinases was observed after fining an aromatic white wine with 1 g/L of a fungoid chitosan. Even if the more stable thaumatin like protein fractions were not significantly affected, the heat stability of the fined chitosan wine samples were highly improved in the 55-62 °C range. Among the secondary effects of a fining treatment, a reduction of tartaric acid, malic acid, potassium and iron was showed. All the free terpenols with the exception of α-terpineol were reduced in significant amounts, whilst the glycosylated forms and the fermentative aroma compounds were not affected by a 1 g/L chitosan addition.