An integrated pervaporation-dia-nanofiltration process for aroma recovery and ethanol removal in white wine

Membrane technologies are widely used in ethanol removal from wine (DW); however, they face challenges in maintaining wine quality, particularly in retaining volatile compounds. This study evaluated for the first time a two-stage membrane process (PV-NF) combining pervaporation (PV) and dia-nanofiltration (dia-NF) to produce a white dealcoholized wine-based beverages (DW; ethanol <0.5% v /v) with aroma preservation. PV was first used to extract and recover aroma compounds from the original wine (OW). The resulting dearomatized wine underwent dia-NF for ethanol removal, after which the recovered aroma concentrate was reconstituted into the final DW, ensuring its alcohol content did not exceed 0.5% v /v. Additionally, the physicochemical, color, and volatile profiles of the produced DWs were studied. The results indicated that total acidity and volatile acidity were reduced by 80–82% and 35–52%, respectively. Furthermore, reducing sugars, glycerin, malic acid, and tartaric acid experienced partial depletion, while citric acid was completely lost. Color profiles were also impacted; the extended processing time of the combined PV-NF approach, elevating the browning index (Abs 420 nm) to as high as 0.71 AU compared to the OW (0.07 AU). The PV-NF process successfully produced DW with ethanol content below 0.5% v /v while retaining 27–31% of total aroma compounds, outperforming NF alone (6–9% retention). These findings highlight the potential of combining PV-NF to mitigate volatile losses during the process and stress the need for optimizing processing strategies to balance ethanol reduction with sensory integrity.