Articles
A NEW SYSTEM TO PRESERVE QUALITY OF GRAPES HARVESTED BY MACHINE
Article number
978_20
Pages
191 – 198
Language
English
Abstract
Many negative effects of mechanical harvesting of grapes are attributed to damage and subsequent leakage of juice, often accentuated by high time between harvest and processing as well as high temperature.
The presence of must in the product harvested by machine, which can reach very high levels (25-30% of the total mass), can cause several negative effects such as oxidation of phenolics, abnormal fermentation, skins maceration, etc.
For that reason, an innovative system of handling and grapes transporting was developed in order to separate, once harvested, the liquid part (must) from the solid one (bunch of grapes and single grape), and then to apply different working processes to each of them.
Thanks to this system, it was possible to isolate the must in a closed tank and thus, immediately, preserve it by dry ice or liquid carbon dioxide, with the addition of enological chemicals (sulphur dioxide, ascorbic acid and tannin) to avoid chemical and microbiological modifications.
The evaluation of wines throughout tests and sensorial analysis highlighted the better quality of the wines obtained by the proposed technique compared with the traditional one.
This was related to the greater presence of primary fragrances, better color, and a better balanced structure of the wine preserved against oxidation action.
The presence of must in the product harvested by machine, which can reach very high levels (25-30% of the total mass), can cause several negative effects such as oxidation of phenolics, abnormal fermentation, skins maceration, etc.
For that reason, an innovative system of handling and grapes transporting was developed in order to separate, once harvested, the liquid part (must) from the solid one (bunch of grapes and single grape), and then to apply different working processes to each of them.
Thanks to this system, it was possible to isolate the must in a closed tank and thus, immediately, preserve it by dry ice or liquid carbon dioxide, with the addition of enological chemicals (sulphur dioxide, ascorbic acid and tannin) to avoid chemical and microbiological modifications.
The evaluation of wines throughout tests and sensorial analysis highlighted the better quality of the wines obtained by the proposed technique compared with the traditional one.
This was related to the greater presence of primary fragrances, better color, and a better balanced structure of the wine preserved against oxidation action.
Authors
F. Pezzi, G. Balducci, L. Pari
Keywords
must, innovative transporting system, dry ice, sensorial analysis
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