Wine lees are the sediment that settles at the bottom of wine barrels, tanks, or bottles during the winemaking process and represent the second most significant by-product of wineries.
Aging red wines in oak barrels is an expensive and laborious process that can only be applied to wines with a certain added value. For this reason, the use of oak alternatives coupled with micro-oxygenation has progressively increased over recent years, because it can reproduce the processes taking place in the barrels more economically and quickly [1]. Several studies have explored how oak alternatives [2-5] can contribute to wine composition and quality but little is known about the influence of their thickness.
NIR spectroscopy has widely been tested in viticulture as powerful alternative to traditional analytical methods in the field of quality evaluation. NIR instruments have been used for assessing must and wine quality features in several works, but little information regarding their application on whole berries for polyphenol determination is available.
Context and purpose of the study. The growing need for sustainable solutions in viticulture has led to increased interest in biostimulants that can enhance plant resilience to both abiotic and biotic stresses.