While it is the fastest-growing sector of the wine-packaging market, canned wine faces a few hurdles. It’s not considered as elegant as wine in a bottle, and it’s not as popular as the formerly maligned “wine bag in a box.” There is also the unfortunate fact – and there is no gentle way to put this – that canned wine occasionally smells like rotten eggs.
A team led by Gavin Sacks, Ph.D. ’05 and Julie Goddard ‘99, Ph.D. ‘08, both professors of food science in Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, is working with wineries, manufacturers and New York state to eliminate that “off” aroma by ever-so-slightly altering the product’s formulation and packaging, which is also prone to corrosion.
In recent research published in the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture (AJEV), the team found that the choice of the ultrathin plastic coating inside aluminum cans can go a long way towards improving the aroma of the beverage and the lifespan of its container.
‘Why doesn’t Coca-Cola have a problem?’
The collaboration began several years ago, when Sacks was approached by winemakers who had encountered occasional quality issues with canned wines: corrosion, leakage and – mingled among the fruity and floral notes – a certain rotten egg smell.
“They said ‘We’re following all the recommendations from the can suppliers and we still have these problems, can you help us out?’” Sacks said. “The initial focus was defining what the problem compounds were, what was causing corrosion and off aromas, and why was this happening in wines, but not in sodas? Why doesn’t Coca-Cola have a problem?”
Sacks teamed up with Goddard, and they blended his work in flavor chemistry with her expertise in packaging and material science. With the support of manufacturers, wineries and the nonprofit New York Wine and Grape Foundation, they began a series of experiments that characterized the chemical makeup of commercial wines, then evaluated the corrosion and off aromas.
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