In recent years, the winemaking industry has undergone a great evolution, introducing technologies and products with the aim of optimising and making processes more profitable, as well as achieving a higher quality of the final product and differentiation.
In these presentations from Enoforum 2022, an interesting study is described in which the combination of an emerging technology such as ultrasound (a technique approved by the OIV) and its synergy with the use of oenological pectolytic enzymes was evaluated with the aim of producing a greater extraction of polyphenolic compounds and ensuring their stabilisation over time.
Following Ricardo Jurado‘s description of the foundations of these two technologies, the parameters involved and the various applications (extraction of aromatic compounds, polysaccharides and phenolics, delayed maturity due to climate change, different grape varieties, etc.), Belen Bautista Oritín describes the results obtained in this work in terms of degradation of the cell wall and diffusion of these compounds in the must, but also in terms of management of the plant material that is normally present in suspension in the must and which has the capacity to interact with part of these compounds and precipitate them.
The combination of powerful ultrasounds (ULTRAWINE – PERSEO) and a pectolytic enzyme could be considered a very interesting practice to reduce maceration times, thus increasing the productivity of wineries, as a reduction of more than 50% in maceration time is possible. Furthermore, this study has shown that the combination of sonication and long maceration times can facilitate the extraction of phenolic compounds, making it possible to obtain wines of great colour from less ripe grapes. This would also serve to reduce the alcohol content of wines without reducing the amount of phenols extracted, an aspect of great interest in view of the very worrying situation with “Climate Change grapes” characterised by a time lag between phenolic and technological ripening.
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