Effect of Maturation on the Physico-chemical and Sensory Quality of Strawberry Wine

601-608Wine from strawberry (Fragaria ananassa), an important temperate fruit, was prepared using three cultivars and by four different methods and matured for 9 mo. The maturation resulted in an increase in reducing sugars, total esters and volatile acidity and a decrease in total soluble solids, total sugars, titratable acidity, colour, anthocyanins and total phenols. All the three cultivars followed this trend in all the characteristics except volatile acidity. Differences in changes of different characteristics during various intervals were also recorded. The wines maintained their original differences even after maturation. Most of these changes were similar to those observed in red grape wine and the values obtained after maturation remained within the range normally observed in such wines. These changes increased the palatability of wine and thus, desirable. In general, the maturation of wine improved sensory quality of strawberry wines, irrespective of the method followed and the cultivar