The style, identity and quality of wines are defined by color and phenolic content. UV-Vis spectrophotometers measure these parameters, but traditional spectrophotometers cannot handle turbid samples without obtaining a spectral measurement.

 

In most of the major winemaking stages, such as grape crush, juice filtration, primary ferment and maturation, samples are highly turbid. To obtain color and phenolic information at these stages, samples must be centrifuged or filtered extensively to run on standard UV-Vis equipment. For a winery, this is slow and expensive, and filtration can remove important color and phenolic information from the sample. It is therefore difficult for a winery to obtain color and phenolic data at the staqes where  wine style can be most influenced through winemaking practices.