Additives may keep opened wine from going bad

(TheOlympian) - The party was over hours ago. The lipstick-stained glasses are still in the sink.

And oops! You forgot to pump the air out of that bottle of pinot noir, now growing funkier by the minute on your kitchen counter.

Fear not. Scientists from Pennsylvania State University are on the case.

In a study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, they described using compounds called chelators to prevent wine from going bad.

It was just a laboratory study, and the chelators are not something that will be approved for use by your local vineyard or wine bar anytime soon. Nevertheless, the additives seemed to help, the Penn State scientists reported.

The key seems to be that the chelators bind with iron that is naturally present in the wine. Iron serves as a catalyst for chemical interplay between various wine compounds and oxygen - "oxidative" reactions that can cause an open bottle of wine to develop unwanted odors and flavors after a day or two.

When the iron is tied up by chelators, however, the level of these reactions is reduced, the authors reported. The scientists did not drink the wine used in the experiments, but measured the levels of undesirable compounds using chemistry.

The Penn State authors included Gal Y. Kreitman, a doctoral candidate in food science, and Ryan J. Elias, assistant professor of food science. They were joined by scholars from the University of California, Davis.