Review of Applications of Enzymatic Methods to the Determination of some Organic Acids in Wines

¹ Station Agronomique et Oenologique de Bordeaux, France.

The essential characteristics of photometric enzymatic analyses are discussed along with application of these techniques to the determination of pyruvic acid, 2-ketoglutaric acid, malic acid, and L(+) lactic acid in wines. These determinations have shown for the first time the presence in wines of keto acids at levels of some tens (and even in some cases hundreds) of milligrams per liter.

These simple specific and rapid enzymatic techniques permit the study of numerous intermediate metabolites which exist in small quantities in a natural material, the precise determination of which is very difficult in complex media such as wines Thus, a new path is opened in the progress of analytical enology and understanding of fermentation.