Proposal for a New Standard OIV Method for Determination of Chromatic Characteristics of Wine

Recent work on simplified methods to determine chromatic characteristics of wine uses transmittance measurements at three wavelengths, thus improving the results of the Office International de la Vigne et du Vin reference method compared to the CIE method. These simplified methods still pose some problems for wines with a low lightness; consequently, a simplified method that uses four wavelengths instead of three is proposed. The errors in the determination of the colorimetric coordinates are less than 2.5 CIELAB units of color difference in 1,840 samples from the 1,841 wines and brandies under study. This method is proposed as a substitute for the current OIV method for the determination of the chromatic characteristics of wine, which has been under review since 1992.