Former and Contemporary Methods for Wine Stabilization

Enology, a science dealing with issues related to wine production, combines ancient tradition with the present time. It was not until Louis Pasteur proved that vinification does not happen by itself and that microorganisms are responsible for this process. It was a beginning for a branch of enology focused on the microbiology of wine, which led to gradual evolution of production methods and the development of advanced techniques for wine stabilization. Nevertheless, alternative methods that can replace or modify the sulfation process as wine preservation are still sought. Physical and chemical methods can be found among them. Also, nanotechnology offers process improvements to enology. This article describes the past and the current wine stabilization methods and summarizes the directions for developing this interdisciplinary branch of knowledge.