Paper Title
New Tricks for an Old Dog: Application of Silicone as a Treatment for Contaminated Wines

Abstract
Wine is a $300 billion global industry for which perceived quality is a key driver of purchase behaviour. Several odorant constituents of wine detract from this quality at elevated levels, and thus de-value the product. Important amongst these compounds are two alkyl-methoxypyrazines (isopropyl-(IPMP) and isobutyl-(IBMP) methoxypyrazine), and two ethylphenols (4-ethylgaiacol (4-EG) and 4-ethylphenol (4-EP)). In thisproject we investigated the capacity ofapolydimethylsiloxane (silicone) polymerto reduce concentrations of these fourtaint odorants. Red wine was spiked with either IPMP [20 ng/L]and IBMP[20 ng/L] (Study 1) or 4-EP [200 ug/L]and 4-EG[200 ug/L](Study 2) and then treated with silicone pieces[surface area 350 cm2/L].Solid Phase Micro-Extraction Multi-Dimensional Gas Chromatography�Mass Spectrometry and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry was used to measure the methoxypyrazines and ethylphenols, respectively,both before and after treatment with silicone.Results showed significant reductions in the target odorants after 8hrs treatment, especially for methoxypyrazines: IPMP (82%), IBMP (94%), 4-EP (12%) and 4-EG (18%). �Ladybug taint� is caused by elevated levels of IPMP in wine, and general �greenness� is largely due to excessivegrape-derived IBMP concentrations; application of silicone would appear to offer considerable remediation benefits in addressing these common wine defects. Keywords- 4-Ethylphenol, 4-Ethylguaiacol, Brettanomyces, Fining, Ladybug Taint, Methoxypyrazines