Partial dealcoholization of red wine by nanofiltration and its effect on anthocyanin and resveratrol levels

Abstract

The present work studies the use of nanofiltration for the production of red wine concentrate with low alcohol content. Factorial design was applied to measure the influences of transmembrane pressure (10–20 bar) and temperature (20–40 ℃) on the retention of valuable components such as anthocyanins and resveratrol, and on the nanofiltration membrane performance. The highest retention of anthocyanin and resveratrol was achieved at low temperature (20 ℃), while the high transmembrane pressure (20 bar) was found to increase the permeate flux considerably. The experiments demonstrated that nanofiltration appears as a valid technique for the production of low alcohol content red wine concentrate. Reduction of volume by a factor of 4, leads to 2.5–3 times more anthocyanins and resveratrol in the wine concentrates. The final new wine products – obtained by using various forms of reconstitution of the concentrated wine – had low alcohol content (4–6 % by volume) and their sensory attributes were similar to those of the original wine.