White wine with red wine-like properties: Increased extraction of grape skin polyphenols improves the antioxidant capacity of the derived white wine

Lower antioxidant activity in white wines in comparison to red wines lies i n the low grape-skin-derived polyphenol content. This paper reports the ana lysis of the antioxidant capacities of white wine samples obtained along tw o different processing procedures directed to enrich the wine with polyphen ols. White wine samples derived from whole squeezed grapes stored for incre asing periods of time (up to 18 h) contained increasing concentrations of p olyphenols (from 0.35 to 0.55 mmol/L) and, in parallel, exhibited increased capacity to scavenge free radicals and to inhibit copper ion-induced low-d ensity lipoprotein (LDL) oxidation. However, addition of increasing concent rations of alcohol (up to 18%) to the whole squeezed grapes remarkably augm ented the extraction of grape skin polyphenols into the wine up to 1.25 mmo l/L, resulting in an increased capacity of the wine to scavenge free radica ls and to inhibit LDL oxidation, to an extent similar to that of red wine. The extent of LDL oxidation inhibition was directly related to the wine pol yphenolic content (r = 0.986). It is concluded that processing white wine b y imposing a short period of grape skin contact in the presence of alcohol leads to extraction of grape skin polyphenols and produces polyphenol-rich white wine with antioxidant characteristics similar to those of red wine.