Highlighting protein fining residues in a model red wine

Many studies have dealt with fining treatments, focusing on their impact on phenolic precipitation or sensoryproperties of the treated wines. Previous articles suggested the presence of soluble complexes with tannins andfining proteins, and probably wine polysaccharides too. However, no study has quantified these possible proteinresidues in wine. The analyses performed on a model red wine to highlight the residual fining proteins were themeasurement of viscosity, the quantification of amino acid/proteins of the samples and the radioactivity of thesupernatants obtained after fining with a radioactive protein. This work has clearly shown, both qualitativelyand quantitatively, the presence of fining residues in a model red wine that had been fined with a gelatin and twohydrolyzed plant proteins. These results have significant implications, yet to be confirmed with commercialfining agents and ‘real’ wines for allergen residues in treated wines