# The Application of Wood Species in Enology: Chemical Wood Composition and Effect on Wine Quality
## 3 Impact of Wood Species on Wine Chemical Composition
In the case of cherry wood, several authors reported that this wood species contribute to a faster red wine pigment stabilization, preserving the maximum red color intensity and the best wine chromatic characteristics [106]. On the other hand, the red wines aged in contact with mulberry wood barrels showed significant reductions in fruity-note ethyl esters and ethylguaiacol and also higher ethylphenol content. In addition, wines aged in cherry wood barrels presented higher polyphenol oxidation, being cherry wood not appropriate for long-time aging [76; 77]. If the aging of the red wine in cherry wood chips is compared with the aging in oak wood chips, it seems to be a quicker evolution of the wine phenols [10; 34]. During the wine aging in cherry wood barrels, a decrease in flavonoids and flavands was observed (involved in condensation phenomena capable of stabilizing wine color) [107]. [PERSON] et al. [106] proposed that red wine aged in cherry wood barrels presented a high quantity of flavands that may possibly be involved in acetaldehyde-mediated condensation, increasing pigments stabilization. As shown in Table 5, the wines aged in cherry wood barrels are distinct from the wine aged in oak wood barrels due to the existence of five additional phenolic compounds, namely, eriodicylol, a flavanone derivative, sakurantetin, pinocembrin, and chrysim [107]. For wines aged in contact with chestnut wood barrels, the presence of valoneic acid dilatone was observed, which could be considered a phenolic marker for a wine aged in contact with this wood species [74]. In these wines, a higher concentration of gallic and ellagic acids was also quantified [71; 74; 108]. Wines aged in contact with false acacia wood presented dihydroorbitentin, robinetin, and 2,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde in higher concentrations, but also other compounds were identified in wines aged in contact with false acacia wood barrels such as 2,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid, pentahydroxylahydroflavonol, tetrahydrochloroylanvol, fustin, trihroxymethoxy dihydroflavonol, robtin, buttin, tetrahydrocarbone, and buttein [65; 66; 74], as shown in Table 5. Phenolic acids present in oak wood also have important functions in aged wines as they influence factors associated with an antioxidant capacity [69; 109; 110; 111; 113]. Wine increases its antioxidant capacity in contact with the wood due to an increase in the concentration of \(p\)-coumaric, gallic, caffeic acids, ferulic, protocatechuic, and protocatechuic aldehyde during wine wood aging [69; 109; 112]. Therefore, the wood composition in phenolic acids used in wine aging could determine the increase in antioxidant capacity of wood-aged wines [113], and consequently, it will be dependent on botanical species used in the wood aging process. [PERSON] et al. [69] observed that the minimum antioxidant capacity was found in extracts from _P. avium_, the extracts from _Q. pyrennaica_, _Q. alba_, and _Q. petraea_ showed middle antioxidant capacity, and the maximum antioxidant capacity was found in extracts from _Q. robur_ and _C. sativa_, these \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Volatile Compounds** & **Wine Characteristics** & **French Oak** & **American Oak** & **Reference** \\ \hline Acetovanillone & 145–177 & 113–116 & \\ \(\beta\)-Ionone & 0.20–0.30 & 0.20–0.30 & \\ Guaiacol & 5–6 & 5–7 & \\
4-Methyl guaiacol & 0.030–0.030 & 0.04–0.05 & \\ Eugen & 13–22 & 17–25 & \\
4-Ethyl guaiacol & 271–306 & 209–274 & \\
4-Ethyl phenol & 1540–1850 & 1160–1590 & \\ Phenol & 5–7 & 5–8 & \\ \(p\)-Cresol & 0.05–0.06 & 0.05–0.06 & \\ \(m\)-Cresol & 1–2 & 0.1–1.0 & \\
2-Phenyl ethanol & 3170–3470 & 2780–3320 & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} nd—not detected.  
\end{table} 
Table 4: _Cont._authors also showed that the antioxidant capacity observed was related with the wood phenol composition of these species. [PERSON] et al. (2014) also identified several volatile compounds that could be used as chemical markers for red wines aged in false acacia (2,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde) and cherry wood barrels' (ethyl-2-benzoate).