Wine stored in bags loses its properties
Last reviewed: 16.05.2018
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If we believe the French scientists (and we do not have any reason to believe them), the wine stored in various packages loses its unique bouquet and flavor. Key chemical compounds that provide these characteristic qualities are simply absorbed by packaging.
Absorption of aromatic substances by packaging (this is called "scalping taste") is a problem well known in the juice industry. It is also not a secret that synthetic plugs absorb flavor and aroma substances from wine much more than natural ones. However, much less is known about the "scalping taste" of wine in such popular packagings as Tetrapaks and "plastic bag".
To conduct this study, French specialists mixed two complex ethyl esters and two alcohol in an acidified aqueous solution of ethyl alcohol, creating a simplified model of wine. Ethyl butyrate and ethylhexanoate give wine its fruit taste, phenylethyl alcohol gives a hint of honey taste, and 4-ethylphenol is responsible for the delicate aroma of smoke.
As it turned out, these substances are quickly absorbed by a polyethylene film or simply penetrate through it. Ethylhexanoate, as the most nonpolar molecule, shows a special craving for nonpolar polyethylene: in just five days a quarter of the content of ethylhexanoate "lost" somewhere inside the film!
Researchers from different institutions in the US and Australia (regions that produce quite cheap wine) initiated a discussion with French opponents, hinting that their simplified model is too simple, and therefore can not be directly transferred to the real wine, especially since no taste tests with the participation of tasters and real wine samples were not conducted.
However, with you, ordinary consumers, not to scientific subtleties - everyday logic suggests that if initially the "ideal" product has lost some components, and in the most unpredictable proportions (and in fact absorption effects also depend on temperature, but it constantly jumps ), it is better from this he could not become. Is not it all the same to us how the taste of wine will change after its storage in plastic packaging, the main thing is that it will not be what it was wanted to see, saw and produced by winemakers. In general, glass containers, despite their weight and cost, is the only way to preserve wine in its more or less original form. Yes, and pay attention to traffic jams - avoid wines under synthetics.