Methods: Twenty-one enamel blocks (3mm x 3mm x 3mm) were prepared, ground even with 1200-grade silicon carbide paper, rinsed with distilled water, dried and allocated to the different wine types and exposed for two, thirty and sixty minutes. The enamel specimen were mounted on aluminium stubs and sputtered with Gold Palladium.
Results: Results of the SEM micro-photographs showed that all wines are potentially erosive to enamel. Erosion was seen as the revealance of enamel prisms causing a characteristic honeycombed appearance in severely affected enamel. Differences exist between the erosive properties of different wines. At thirty minutes it appeared that Wine Two had the most severe effect followed by Wine Three. At sixty minutes, however, Wine One displayed the most severe form of erosion followed closely by Wine Three and then Wine Two.
Conclusion: The longer enamel is exposed to wine in terms of time, the more severe the erosive effect on enamel appears to be. The results underline the progressive and irreversible nature of the erosion process of surface enamel in an acidic environment such as wine over a period of time.