Impact of long bottle aging (10 years) on volatile composition of red wines micro-oxygenated with oak alternatives

The adding of wood pieces together with small amounts of oxygen to simulate the processes for aging red wine in barrels is the most common alternative to oak barrels. The evolution of these wines aged with alternatives in bottle has not been examined in depth as they are considered to be for rapid consumption. This paper presents for the first time the evolution in bottle for 10 years of the same wine aged in oak barrels and subjected to diverse alternative aging processes using different woods. Wines subjected to this alternative have evolved after 10 years in the bottle in a similar way to those aged in barrels. Wines aged in barrels retain significantly higher levels of blue tonalities than those treated with chips + FMOX and the loss of compounds responsible for red is almost double in wines treated with alternatives than in those aged in barrels. Wines aged in barrels showed higher concentrations of cis- and trans-whiskylactones than those treated with alternative products. In both the cis/trans whisky lactone ratio has been around 2 in wines aged in French oak, and over 5 in wines aged in American oak. Adequate oxygen management during treatment with oak alternatives provides long-life wines.