Effect of the maceration technique on the relationships between anthocyanin composition and objective color of Syrah wines

The effects of two different vinification techniques, traditional fermentation and carbonic maceration, on the anthocyanin composition and color of young red wines, made with Syrah grapes grown in a warm climate, were compared. Tristimulus colorimetry was applied to study the color of wines during the vinification, and a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) procedure was used for the analysis of anthocyanins. Carbonic maceration led to wines with lower anthocyanin content, mainly monoglucosides, and total phenols. This was related to lighter wines, less saturated, but more colorful (higher chroma C*ab values), and hues hab similar to those of the Syrah wines made by traditional vinification. Thus, the lightness L* had much more influence on the saturation s*uv of the wines obtained by carbonic maceration than the chroma (s*uv = C*uv/L*). From a study of the color-composition relationships using linear and multiple regression, better relationships were found for the wines from traditional vinification, where the chromatic parameters L*, hab, and s*uv could be predicted from the 3-monoglucosides of delphinidin, petunidin, peonidin, and malvidin concentrations (R > 0.9). However, a good prediction of the chroma C*ab from the anthocyanin composition was not possible. On the contrary, C*ab was the best predicted parameter from the anthocyanins monoglucosides (R > 0.9) in the carbonic maceration wines.