Phenolic content in wine - quercetin. Like other flavonoids, the concentration of flavonols in the grape berries increases as they are exposed to sunlight. Some viticulturalists will use measurement of flavonols such as quercetin as an indication of a vineyard's sun exposure and the effectiveness of canopy management techniques. Anthocyanins are phenolic compounds found throughout the plant kingdom, being frequently responsible for the blue to red colors found in flowers, fruits and leaves. In wine grapes, they develop during the stage of "veraison" when the skin of red wine grapes changes color from green to red to black. As the sugars in the grape
Wine in China "materia medica" compiled in the late Han, states that grapes could be used to produce wine. In the Three Kingdoms era (220–280 AD), Wei emperor Cao Pi noted that grape wine "is sweeter than the wine made [from cereals] using ferments and sprouted grain. One recovers from it more easily when one has taken too much." Grapes continued to be grown in the following centuries, notably in the northwestern region of Gansu, but were not used to produce wine on a large scale. Wine thus remained an exotic product known by few people. Not until the Tang dynasty (618–907) did