A procedure for the measurement of Oxygen Consumption Rates (OCRs) in red wines and some observations about the influence of wine initial chemical composition.

The rates at which wine consumes oxygen are important technological parameters for whose measurement there are not accepted procedures. In this work, volumes of 8 wines are contacted with controlled volumes of air in air-tight tubes containing oxygen-sensors and are further agitated at 25 °C until O2 consumption is complete. Three exposure levels of O2 were used: low (10 mg/L) and medium or high (18 or 32 mg/L plus the required amount to oxidize all wine SO2 ). In each oxygen level, 2-4 independent segments following pseudo-first order kinetics were identified, plus an initial segment at which wine consumed O2 very fast. Overall, multivariate data techniques identify six different Oxygen-Consumption-Rates (OCRs) as required to completely define wine O2 consumption. Except the last one, all could be modeled from the wine initial chemical composition. Total acetaldehyde, Mn, Cu/Fe, blue and red pigments and gallic acid seem to be essential to determine these OCRs.