Hexane use in wine

"Dee Randall" wrote .........

What a heavy subject on a sunny Sunday afternoon!!!!!

Dee, this would appear to be right down Professor Lipton's alley.

However, my understanding is that Hexane is not present in wine.

It *MAY* be used in laboratory testing of material, including wines, corks, barrels etc to determine the presence of polychlorides; residues of fungicides, insecticides or other volatile compounds where the hexane is used as an extraction agent.

HTH

st.helier

Dee, Hexane is a component of gasoline, among other things. It has a very pungent odor that some find quite unpleasant. I would doubt if there were much, if any, present in wine. Can you give me some context for your concerns? Is there an article you can steer me to?

Mark Lipton

I am wondering since some grapeseed oil is made by expeller method and some using hexane, whether grapes to make wine are exposed to hexane (yes, :-)) I know (or at least I think I do) that the grape stomper is not trying to get oil out for his wine.

I 'think' I understand that hexane is or can be used to see how much pesticides etc. are in a product, but that is not of which I am speaking.

So, I guess my very basic question is: is hexane used in the 'production' of wine?

Thanks for your reply. Dee Dee

That would be 50% of the 100 kg humans, but I bet you knew that. Not to be argumentative, this is just for the benefit of the metrically challenged readers. :)

You say, I do not think it would be very cost effective to add hexane to wine or grapes to extract grapeseed oil.

However, Berio does say in an email to me that "Grapeseed oil is solvent-extracted."

Thanks for the long reply. Dee Dee

Dee, The production of grapeseed oil has little to do with the production of wine. The grapeseeds are part of the pomace, the solids that are left after the pressing. That's what would be, I suppose, extracted with hexane, though I doubt that any grapeseed oil destined for food would be obtained by hexane extraction. FWIW, though, after the extraction, the hexane will be evaporated, leaving next to none in the oil.

Mark Lipton

When I emailed Filippo Berio, a very large oil producer regarding a specific grapeseed oil they produced and I bought: "As it does not say "expeller" pressed" on the bottle, can you tell me if this product is chemically extracted."

The email answer to me from Berio was quote, "Grapeseed oil is solvent-extracted."

So, it must be some chemical, so I was wondering if it were 'hexane' used to extract; and, then, of course, if any were left as residue. OTOH, I would be wondering the same no matter what chemical were used.

Thanks for your response. Dee Dee