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Compound discovery set to revolutionise wine world
August 2, 2007
Oliver Styles
In what scientists are hailing as the greatest breakthrough in a generation, Australian researchers have identified the aromatic compound that produces the black pepper smell in red wine.
Boffins at the Australian Research Institute spent eight years trying to find the compound, dubbed Rotundone, which was discovered last year, but kept secret while patents were secured.
The black pepper aroma is typical of many top-end Australian Shiraz wines.
The discovery could revolutionise winemaking, enabling winemakers and winegrowers to alter the way they produce their wine in order to minimise or maximise certain flavour characteristics.
'Once you know what the compound is, you can find out what, in the vineyard or winemaking process, creates it, and therefore maximise it,' said Jamie Goode, author of The Science of Wine and wineanorak.com.
Dr Allan Pollnitz, a senior researcher on the project, said the discovery was, 'a very significant breakthrough, perhaps the most significant of a generation'.
Goode said the overall effect of these kinds of discoveries would allow average producers to make better wines.
'It might help make better cheap wine,' he said.
Top Australian winemaker Bruce Tyrell agreed, telling the The Australian newspaper that the discovery would help the 'more commercial end' of the wine industry but that at the top end, he was more 'inclined to take what nature has given me'.
Have your say...
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 Haven't we heard this before? and certain additives being added to wine to exaggerate certain characteristics?,it might be a case of bad wine even further disguised to cover up bad winemaking.Who knows black peppercorns might find a sudden upsurge in popularity in certain regions of the world!.
Andrew Norrie, Edinburgh, Scotland
I'm such a constant fiend for knowledge and especially about wine. It never ceases to participate in history. While I have written papers on malolactic fermentation and other steps in making wine, the base for me is that the over expression of any element in a wine offsets the balance. balance is as holy as the ground. " Hey we now know what makes wine taste like black pepper!" i feel a terrior debate coming on... revolutionise? really? have we discovered what makes a wine express itself and it's soil in perfect tandem? Nope. maybe part of the wine world will be revolutionized, while the other half keeps at it, sometimes getting accused of using the black pepper magic potion in their wines.
Ted Glennon, Wine Director, Arterra Restaurant, San Diego California, USA
Sorry to say but Decanter has got it all backwards...
Decanter article quote: "In what scientists are hailing as the greatest breakthrough in a generation, Australian researchers have identified the aromatic compound that produces the black pepper smell in red wine."
I have read the main research article in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, as well as many of the articles in the press about the subject, and I am surprised of how this magazine comments the result from the research. It seams that you (the writer) haven't even read the main research paper published in Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (see ref. below).
Quotation from the research article:
"We call alpha-ylangene a marker, not an active aroma compound, as it does not have a strong aroma and certainly not a strong 'spicy' or 'peppery' aroma by GCMS-O. Ylang ylang oil rich in ylangene is not spicy and ylangene has not been described as 'spicy'/'peppery' in the literature. As a marker, no direct relationship with the unknown 'peppery' compound(s) is required."
The result of the research is that alpha-ylangine either is a marker for unknown substance(s) giving wine it's pepper character or involved in biosynthesis of those substances.
This means that it is not true that "Australian researchers have identified the aromatic compound that produces the black pepper smell in red wine" that is stated by this magazine.
Ref.
Parker M et al, " Identification and Quantification of a Marker Compound for 'Pepper' Aroma and Flavor in Shiraz Grape Berries by Combination of Chemometrics and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry", J. Agric. Food Chem., Vol. 55, No. 15, 2007.
Lars Jonsson, sommelier and chemist, Gothenburg, Sweden
The discovery has little to do with additives as suggested in the posted comments. But yes I agree. This will 'spice' up the terroir debate again, although perhaps not as much as when Jamie helped stir the discussion a while ago with his findings related to sulphur compounds and toying with reduction. Perhaps terroir is better defined as an acquired taste after all? Whilst some keep their tongue stuck to wet Welsh slate, others like it 'hot'!
Georges Meekers, Mediterranean Wine Campus
It is all great and well that such an “additive” has been discovered.
This brings once again the same problem that has risen with; I think it's called Oxymethalpyrazine; the green pepper characteristic found in Sauvignon Blanc. Many, poor quality, over ripe sauvignon grapes have been made into inferior wines, their acidity boosted, and Oxymethalpyrazine added and flogged as “better wine”.
Due to the potential impact this would have on a market it has been banned in South Africa, yet there are still the guys who take the chance and use it. One of biggest producers got caught in recent years for exact such actions. Ultimately winemaking is about what nature gives you and the “calibre” of the winemaker.
Your “pepper additive” I feel is going to cause the same skulduggery as Oxymethalpyrazine and ultimately do nothing other than damage and already difficult and competitive market.
Congratulations to the Australians, they do seem to be on the ball when it comes to research, but this will not help as an additive, if you can increase its concentration through viticulture and winemaking techniques, then bravo, but not additives, that is not winemaking, that individual/winemaker becomes nothing more than a “lab-rat!”
Michael Niven, Viticulturist, Stellenbosch, South Africa
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