Young red wines are rich in phenolic substances that extract into wine during maceration. Phenolic substances have an effect both on the sensory properties and on the stability and quality of the wine. With the microoxygenation process, we can control the influence of wine maturation on a controlled basis, thus improving the sensory and chemical properties of the wine. With microoxygenation, we can control wine maturation, especially in steel tanks, where oxygen has limited access. In the diploma thesis we studied the influence of microoxygenation on the spectrophotometric and chemical properties of the Barbera wine from the Vipava wine-growing region. The experiment lasted two months. Oxygen was slowly fed with the microoxygenator into a young red wine in small quantities. We analyzed the initial sample, the analysis of the intermediate samplings and the analysis of the sample after the completion of the microoxygenation process. The analysis carried out were chemical (pH, free, total, bound SO2, total and volatile acids, alcohol content and total extract) and spectrophotometric (total, tannic, non-tannic, flavonoidal and non-flavonoidal phenols, anthocyanins, color intensity, tone color, red color share in different wavelengths and a SO2-resistant colorant). On the basis of the obtained results of the analyzes, we anticipated the improvement of the properties of the wine, in particular the increased intensity and color stability, and the reduced concentration of certain phenolic compounds affecting the taste of the wine. The results of our analysis did not indicate the significant differences between the initial and final samples, which could be due to the insufficient amount of oxygen supplied during microoxygenation or the short duration of microoxygenation.
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