RESEARCH: THE NATURE OF POLYPHENOLS
Research conducted in collaboration with the Experimental Institute of Oenology of Asti in 2003, produced an article written by Enrico Vaudano, Loretta Panero, Orlando Pecchenino, Rocco di Stefano, and M.D.C. Pazo Alvarez entitled “Fine tuning vinification and aging techniques for Dolcetto di Dogliani”. The article was published in 2003 in the magazine L’Enologo” and investigated the particular nature of Dolcetto’s phenolic compounds even further.
It was discovered that the polyphenols present in this wine needed more oxygen to begin condensing than those in other wines, for example in Nebbiolo, which has more reactive tannins. This explained why early bottling of Dolcetto wines tended to go into reduction, something that can be countered by increasing the initial oxygenation or by bottling later in the season. Dolcetto in fact, is not a wine that tends to oxidize and lose colour, but tends, rather, to go into reduction. The oxygen, acting as a bridge between the tannins and the anthocyanins, also means that fewer aggressive total combined polyphenols are created, since condensation stabilizes the molecules. In the Dolcetto samples that were examined, most of the tannins had not combined with the anthocyanins, and after seven years in the bottle, these wines seemed as if they were only just ready to be bottled. These discoveries opened up new horizons regarding the wine’s longevity and its vinification.