Applications of natural ingredients in alcoholic drinks - Natural Food Additives, Ingredients and Flavourings - page 375

Table 16.8 Some components of wine-based apéritifs

Name Alcohol base Botanicals Comments

Campari Fortifi ed wine Cinchona bark,

cascarilla bark,
ginseng roots,
bergamot, rhubarb
stalks, essential
oils

Colour due to added
cochineal (carmine) (E120)
or artifi cial colourant,
depending on place of
manufacture.
20.5-28% ABV.

Dubonnet Fortifi ed wine Cinchona bark,

citrus peel, herbs,
spices, including
cinnamon and
coffee

The most 'vermouth-like' of
the apéritifs; blanc and
rouge. Oak-aged before
bottling.
15-19% ABV, depending on
place of manufacture.

Lillet Sauvignon Blanc/

Sémillon wine
(white - the
original); Cabernet
Sauvignon/Merlot
wine (red)

Orange peel,
cinchona bark

Aged in oak casks, giving
vanilla notes. Peels are
macerated in sweetened
grape spirit for several
months, giving a liqueur.
18% ABV.

St Raphael Grape spirit and

grape must
(= 'vin de liqueur'
or 'mistelle')

Cinchona bark,
bitter orange peels,
cocoa beans,
vanilla beans

Botanicals are macerated in
grape spirit for several
weeks. Red or gold version.
15% ABV.

Resinated wines, such as retsina, are survivors of the widespread ancient
oenological practice of preserving wine (especially white wine) with pine resin.
Then, the resin was painted on the interior of storage jars; nowadays the fl avour
originates from small pieces of resin (usually from the Aleppo pine, Pinus
halepensis Miller) added to the fermenting wine. Retsina is the most famous wine
of this type, the name 'retsina' being an EU-protected designation of origin for
such wine made in Cyprus, Greece and Greek-owned islands such as Crete
(McKay et al. 2011d). Retsina has relatively high levels of antioxidant polyphenols
compared with non-resinated white wines (Proesteus et al. 2005).
Oak fl avour is important in a wide range of wine types, such as non-aromatic
white wines (i.e. not Gewürztraminer, Muscat or Riesling types, but Chardonnay
or Sémillon, for example) and particularly most red wines. Traditionally, this
fl avour arises through fermentation in oak vats or casks and/or especially via
maturation of the wine in small (e.g. 225 l) oak casks, sometimes for many
months. During the maturation process, slow oxygen ingress through the wood
pores gradually promotes oxidation and other reactions, but fl avouring substances,
mostly phenolic compounds and lactones, are slowly leached from the toasted
cask interior (Fig. 16.7). This last point is especially true if toasting is high and/or
the cask is new; indeed, old casks (leached out and encrusted with tartrate deposits)
add little fl avour to the beverage.

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