Oxygen consumption rate of lees during sparkling wine (Cava) aging; influence of the aging time

•Oxygen consumption rate of sparkling wine lees from the first to ninth year of aging was measured.•Results confirm that lees consume O2 and can protect sparkling wines from oxidation.•The oxygen consumption rate of lees decreased overtime, especially after 3 years.•These data explain why only few sparkling wines can age more than 3 years. Sparkling wines elaborated with a traditional method need to age in the bottle in contact with wine lees because yeast autolysis enriches the wines in colloids and improves their effervescence, foam and aromatic complexity. It is generally considered that lees protect the wine against oxidation because they consume small amounts of oxygen that can permeate the crown cap. However, to our knowledge there is no specific study on this subject using lees from real sparkling wine. Therefore, the oxygen consumption rate (OCR) of the lees of sparkling wines from the first to the ninth year of aging time was measured using a noninvasive fluorescence measurement method. The results indicate that lees really consume oxygen and that their OCR tended to decrease with the wine aging time. These data suggest that the lees’ capacity to protect against oxidation decreases over time, which could affect the ability of sparkling wines to age properly.