Interactions between wine lees and polyphenols: Influence on oxygen consumption capacity during simulation of wine aging

During wine aging on lees, some membrane lipids of yeast lees, in contact with dissolved oxygen at low concentration, may undergo mild oxidation explaining the capacity of yeast lees to consume oxygen. We studied the cross-reactivity of complex polyphenols and tannins from wine and yeast lees towards oxygen during simulation of wine aging. We observed a total decrease of oxygen consumption capacity of mixed yeast lees and wine polyphenol by comparison with the reactivity of each component studied alone. A strong loss of reactivity of yeast lees towards oxygen was observed when separated from soluble polyphenols, although only a fraction of the total polyphenols remained adsorbed on lees.