Smoke taint analysis

The Wine Research Team at the University of Melbourne offer free and bound volatile phenols analysis for grape, juice/musk and wine samples for smoke taint assessment using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Fact and Analysis

When the grape is exposed to smoke, especially from post-veraison to harvest, there is an increasing chance to accumulate volatile phenols in grape skin that may give smoky, burnt, ashtray nose to the resultant wine. These compounds may be converted into their non-volatile glycosides form in grape and released as aromatic volatiles during winemaking and bottle aging. This suggests that smoke-exposed grape that does not smell smoky may also produce smoke taint wine.

The best way to assess the risk of smoke taint is to analyse the free and bond form of volatile phenols in grape and wine, mainly 7 compounds: guaiacol, 4-methylguaiacol, o-cresol, m-cresol, p-cresol, syringol and 4 methyl-syringol. Small-scale fermentation is also recommended to produce wine for both chemical and sensory evaluation.

What we can offer

The Wine Research Team at University of Melbourne offer free and bound volatile phenols analysis for grape, juice/musk and wine samples for smoke taint assessment using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Isotope labelled standards, including d4-guaiacol, d3-4-methylguaiacol, d7-p-cresol, d6-syringol will be used as internal standards, together with external standards of all seven target volatile phenols to achieve accurate detection.

Samples for analysis

For grape samples, a random of 30-bunch sample is recommended to be collected from vineyard to achieve homogenized sampling. For must/juice/wine sample, 50 ml sample is required. Please contact us prior to collecting/delivering/mailing sample to us.

Contact

  • Dr Kate Howell, T: +61 3 9035 3119, E:khowell@unimelb.edu.au
  • Dr Pangzhen Zhang, T: +61 3 8344 6890, E: pangzhen.zhang@unimelb.edu.au

Contact information

For more information, please contact: