Science Spark : should we add enzyme to release more aroma in a poor wine?

If you one day try to make wine, you ll take grapes, let them ferment for some weeks, somehow filter and get something to drink. If you follow the molecules present in the grapes, you ll see that some of them will disappear during the fermentation, to give birth to aroma compounds. Those molecules, known as "aroma precursors", need some help to release the aroma: they get it from enzyme, which will cut the molecule in two, one of the moiety being the aroma.

Zhu et al, from Qinhuangdao University in China then got the following idea : what if some aroma precursors did not manage to release their aroma ? They would then be in our glass of wine ? Could we then release them? By adding enzyme?

So, they took Cabernet Sauvignonand and divided it in two. In one, they add β-glycosidase, in the other nothing. Using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, they were able to see the action of the β-glycosidase and the formation of aroma. Even more : they could confirm it by a tasting.

So, should we all have a small bag of β-glycosidase with us to pour it in a wine with a poor nose ? Could we then make it better?

Zhu, F.-M., Du, B. and Li, J. (2014), Aroma enhancement and enzymolysis regulation of grape wine using β-glycosidase. Food Science & Nutrition. doi: 10.1002/fsn3.84