Influence of Blending on the Content of Different Compounds in the Biological Aging of Sherry Dry Wines

Principal components analysis to examine the effect of blending (viz. the mixing and transfer of wine
between cask rows in a “criaderas and solera” system) on metabolic activity in flor yeasts during
biological aging of sherry dry wines was carried out. The variables used in the analysis were the
wine compounds most deeply involved in the flor yeast metabolism, namely ethanol, acetaldehyde,
glycerol, acetic acid, and l-proline. The greatest blending effect was found to be on the third and
second “criadera”, which are the stages where the yeasts show a high metabolic activity. The stages
holding the oldest wine (viz. the first criadera and the solera) exhibited no differences before and
after blending; therefore, the yeasts have a decreased biological activity in them and physical-chemical
aging processes seemingly prevail over it.
Keywords: Biological aging; blending; flor yeasts; wine