Light wine. Technological and legal aspects of alcohol reduced wine

Mestrado em Viticultura e Enologia - Instituto Superior de Agronomia / Faculdade de Ciências. Universidade do PortoThe work investigates the technological and legal aspects of producing and commercializing alcohol reduced wine. For various reasons – related to health concerns, consumer fashions, and tax regimes among others – the global wine consumer market currently demands lower alcohol products. In response, industry and researchers have been working together to examine how to produce alcohol-reduced wines that maintain the technological features and organoleptic character of quality wine. As part of this effort, this work reviews the current state of the art in wine alcohol reduction technology, especially the stabilization of the wines during storage and their organoleptic quality. Through a series of cellar-based trials, the work shows that 50 mg/L of free SO2 are efficient to avoid microbial spoilage in wines containing 4% and 8% (v/v), respectively. Moreover, based on a series of sensorial taste panels, the work makes recommendations on how to improve the organoleptic quality of alcohol-reduced wines, especially with regard to acidity, bitterness and body. At a different level, the work examines the legal framework for alcohol-reduced wines. It argues that once the actually available technology allows the production of quality alcohol-reduced wines and consumers desire such products, current OIV and EU regulations defining wine as grape fermented beverage containing at least 8.5% (v/v) may need to be revised. It is recommended to create a new legal category for ‘light wines’ containing between 4% and 8,5% (v/v)