Pairing Red Wine and Closure: New Achievements from Short-to-Medium Storage Time Assays

The physicochemical and sensory properties of wines are influenced by several factors, starting in the vineyard and evolving during the winemaking stages. After bottling, variables such as bottle position, closure type, storage temperature, and storage time shape wine characteristics. In this study, red wines stored for approximately 0.5 and 3 years with natural cork, micro-agglomerated cork stoppers, and screw cap closures were analyzed. Various techniques were employed to investigate changes during bottle storage, including the determination of volatile components by comprehensive gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with time-of-flight analyzer (GC × GC-ToFMS), phenolic profile by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography, coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-DAD-MSⁿ), general physicochemical parameters, the oxygen transfer rate of cork stoppers, and sensorial analysis performed by a trained panel. The results revealed that the type of closure created distinct environments within the bottles, slightly influencing both sensory attributes and chemical evolution of the red wines. These findings highlight the value of combining diverse analytical techniques to reveal closure-driven differences, with volatile compound profiling emerging as the most sensitive methodology. Additionally, this study emphasizes that differences modulated by the wine-closure pairing, which become more pronounced during storage, can serve as an oenological tool in the construction of a wine's identity.