Influence of the storage temperature and the ethyl alcohol content on the shelf life of Asti Spumante DOCG

‘Asti’ or ‘Asti Spumante’ is an aromatic Italian sparkling wine produced exclusively with ‘Moscato bianco’ grapes growing in Piedmont (North West Italy) and commercialized as a sweet dessert wine. In this work, relationships between alcohol concentration, wine temperature and shelf life of the product have been defined. Three ‘Asti’ wines produced from the same must but having different alcohol concentrations and stored at three temperatures were used for the trial. Colour, acetaldehyde, volatile compounds and sensory analysis were used for defining the effect of storage. The results show that product shelf-life is directly correlated to the alcohol concentration of the wine and inversely correlated to its storage temperature.