Oxygen and Wine, a Love Hate Relationship

The ongoing debates and tribulations about the love hate relationship between wine and oxygen is a hot topic in the industry.  ’Wines & Vines‘ discusses differing oxygen transmission levels for closures, subsequent development in bottle, and oxygen effects on wine.  I found the section on “Oxygen Effects” most interesting and applicable in that it explains the role that oxygen can and does play in the winemaking process. 

Oxygen’s effects
So just what does oxygen do to wine? Many white wines are made reductively from the start, protecting them as much as possible from oxygen after crushing, but for some white styles and most red wines, oxygen exposure at some stages of fermentation is an important tool in winemaking. For all wines, some oxygen is needed for healthy yeast growth during primary fermentation, and a deficit will result in struggling ferments that are liable to produce sulfides, causing reduction problems.

Once fermentation is complete, the requirement for oxygen is much reduced–especially for unoaked white wine styles. Winemakers will look to protect wines during storage and movement by the use of inert gases and stainless steel tanks. However, the use of oak barrels is a deliberate attempt to make positive use of small levels of oxygen exposure during winemaking to achieve stylistic goals.

This is particularly important for red wines with substantial tannic structure. Increasingly, winemakers are using controlled oxygen delivery during winemaking (known as microoxygenation) to assist in developing structure, color and mouthfeel in red wines–although this is still pretty much an empirical process that involves a good degree of guesswork and tasting rather than exact measurement.

When a winemaker has decided his wine is ready for bottling (which can be as little as a few months and as long as several years after vintage) he needs to decide how that bottling is to take place–and also how the bottle is to be sealed. These decisions will have important implications for the shelf-life of the wine, and also how the wine will appear to consumers at the point of consumption…

 Click Here for the rest of the article from Wines & Vines

Joanie Hudson, Director National and International Marketing, Santa Barbara Winery / Lafond Winery & Vineyards