Influence of Botrytis cinerea on the Polysaccharide Composition of Xarel.lo Musts and Cava Base Wines

¹ Departament de Nutrició i Bromatologia, Universitat de Barcelona, av. Joan XXIII s/n, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
² Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Institut Supérieur de la Vigne et du Vin, Institut des Produits de la Vigne, Unité de Recherches Biopolymères et Arômes, 2, place Viala, F-34060 Montpellier Cedex 1, France.

gazol{at}farmacia.far.ub.es

Modifications induced by a spontaneous infection of grapes by gray rot on the polysaccharide profile and content from white musts and cava sparkling base wines have been studied. Fungal -D-glucans could not be detected in musts and wines obtained from grapes contaminated by B. cinerea. The direct pressing of grapes used for the production of sparkling base wines may be a limiting factor for the solubilization of fungal glucans into the must. Nevertheless, the concentration of the hydrolase-resistant grape pectic polysaccharides rhamnogalacturonan II is increased three-fold in the wine obtained from contaminated grapes. Arabinogalactan content increased also although to a lower extent. As expected, yeast mannoproteins were not affected by the previous contamination of grapes. The decrease in filterability of wines produced from contaminated grapes may be related to their high content in grape polysaccharides and not only to the presence of fungal -D-glucans whose extraction is related to the disruption of grape berry skins prior to pressing.

Key words: pectic polysaccharide, gray rot, Botrytis cinerea, grape juice, sparkling wine

Submitted on December 15, 1998
Revised on August 11, 1999

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