Study of the oxidative evolution of tannins during Syrah red wines ageing by tandem mass spectrometry

Red wine is a very complex medium in which condensed tannins undergo many modifications during winemaking and bottle ageing. These reactions have an impact on the organoleptic properties. This work aimed to highlight tannins evolution related to wine evolution by studying three vintages of Syrah wines. An accelerated oxidation was also undertaken in order to evaluate the ability of this oxidation to imitate natural evolution. After chemical depolymerization of the tannins, the monitoring of 6 types of markers at two oxidation levels was investigated. An evolution of the tannin oxidation state during ageing evidenced by the increase of the markers of the second oxidation level was observed. In the 2018 oxidized wine sample, the first oxidation level markers were similar to the 2014 vintage but the second oxidation level markers were higher than other vintages, indicating a more advanced state of tannin oxidation.