Capacidad de hongos aislados de corcho y de Botrytis cinerea para transfomar 2,4,6-trichlorofenol en 2,4,6-trichloroanisol

[Autom. eng. transl.] In wines, moldy odors are one of the most unpleasant organoleptic defects and are severely judged by both expert tasters and consumers. This smell is known by the term "cork flavor" because, traditionally, the cork stopper has been considered as the source of contamination of haloanisoles in wines, compounds that appear more frequently in wines with this defect. 2,4,6-Trichloroanisole (TCA) is primarily responsible for this defect and has as a more immediate precursor to 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (TCP), which can be transformed into TCA by fungal biomethylation processes . Therefore, it is important to know if microorganisms present in cork can produce TCA from the TCP present in it. To verify this capacity, seven strains of fungi of the genera Penicillium, Aspergillus, Trichoderma and Chrysonilia have been isolated from corks and a strain of Botrytis cinerea from the grape has also been included. Four of them produced TCA when they grew directly on the cork in the presence of TCP, but Aspergillus and Botrytis cinerea had the highest levels of TCA formation. Until now, the literature does not collect any information on the ability of Botrytis cinerea to transform TCP into TCA, and since this fungus is frequently present in grapes and in the cellar environment, this activity could partially explain the defect of “flavor a cork ”in the wine before being bottled.