LAUSR

Abstract The formation of vitisin A and physicochemical properties of a young red wine with pyruvic acid addition (500 mg/L) during high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) at various conditions were studied. Response surface methodology was used to interpret the interaction effects of pressure (350–550 MPa), pressure holding time (30–90 min) and temperature (25–55 °C) on the determined wine physicochemical parameters. The results showed that the pyruvic acid addition led to a higher vitisin A yield, and its greater formation was induced by HHP treatment. On the other hand, HHP at applied extremely high conditions significantly increased wine anthocyanins polymerization, its ‘chemical age’, and its chromatic parameters, such as yellowness, and saturation also increased accordingly. At the same time, relatively lower contents of total anthocyanins, total flavonols and total tartaric esters were also observed. Moreover, the application of medium HHP conditions was beneficial for the total phenolics retained. Industrial relevance HHP is an important technology for food processing. This work shows that HHP can promote the formation of complex anthocyanin pyruvic adducts and physicochemical properties of a young red wine containing additional pyruvic acid. Therefore, HHP can be potentially used to initiate the condensation reactions between anthocyanins and other compounds in wine rapidly, thus stabilizing the wine color and accelerating the wine aging process.