Implementation of high performance liquid chromatography coupled to thermal lens spectrometry (HPLC-TLS) for quantification of pyranoanthocyanins during fermentation of Pinot Noir grapes

In this work high performance liquid chromatography coupled to thermal lens spectrometry (HPLC-TLS) was applied for monitoring of vinylphenolic pyranoanthocyanins formation during the fermentation of Pinot Noir wines. Vinylphenolic pyranoanthocyanins are wine pigments, present in low concentrations, but very important for wine colour stability. Fermentation process was conducted with four different yeast strains, used as starters, either in sequential fermentation of non- Saccharomyces with S. cerevisiae yeast or as single fermentation with S. cerevisiae yeasts in order to test the applicability of developed method for monitoring of selected compounds in real wine fermentation experiments. The developed HPLC-TLS method showed higher sensitivity compared to HPLC coupled to diode array detection (DAD) technique for particular wine colour compounds. Obtained limits of detection (LODs), were 6- and 22-times lower in comparison to HPLC–DAD in gradient and isocratic elution mode, respectively, whereas limits of quantification (LOQs) 5 and 18-times lower. Lower LODs enabled earlier observation of vinylphenolic pyranoanthocyanins formation during fermentation (already at day 7) in the case of HPLC-TLS method in gradient mode, while by using HPLC–DAD in gradient elution mode the formation of vinylphenolic pyranoanthocyanins was noticed only after 12 days of fermentation.