Abstract
Pinot noir and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes were harvested at maturity from University of California vineyards in Davis and Oakville. Seeds were collected from representative berry samples, separated, and cleaned. The soft outer seed coat was then manually scraped from the seeds, collected, weighed, and extracted in aqueous alcohol. Next, the endosperm of the seeds was removed, collected, weighed, and extracted as above. In addition, whole seeds extracts were prepared from each cultivar. All extracts were analyzed for monomeric and polymeric flavan-3-ols using HPLC. For each cultivar, the outer seed coat contained the majority of both the monomeric and polymeric flavan-3-ols (2 to 5 times more than the endosperm), with the exception of epicatechin in Cabernet Sauvignon. The tissue and seed analyses independently showed that Pinot noir seeds contained more flavan-3-ols than did Cabernet Sauvignon seeds.
- Received May 1993.
- Copyright 1994 by the American Society for Enology and Viticulture