Correlation of Wine’s Main Components’ Concentration with the Density of Model Aqueous Solutions and Wine Samples

Abstract

Density is an important physical property, affecting wine mouthfeel, while it can also be used for monitoring alcoholic fermentation in winemaking. Aim of this study was to elucidate the correlation of ethanol, glucose/fructose, glycerol and tartaric acid on the density of model aqueous solutions and Greek wine samples. Various model aqueous solutions were prepared and density was measured at 20 ˚C. Density of dry white and red wine samples was also measured. A linear regression analysis was performed and theoretical fermentation monitoring curves by density measurement were obtained. The resulting models presented a coefficient of determination over 97.3%. Tartaric acid was found to increase density the most, followed by glucose and glycerol, whereas ethanol decreased density. The knowledge of the correlation of the concentration of each wine component with density may be beneficial to quantitative analysis of wine and to optimizing wine mouthfeel.