HAZE RISK ASSESSMENT OF MUSCAT MUSTS AND WINES : WHICH LABORATORY TEST ALLOWS A RELIABLE ESTIMATION OF THE HEATWAVE REALITY?
Abstract
Wines made from Muscat d’Alexandria grapes exhibit a high haze risk. For this reason, they are systematically treated with bentonite, on the must and sometimes also on wine. In most oenological laboratories and in companies (trade, cooperatives, independent winegrowers), the test that is by far the most widely used, on a worldwide scale, remains the heat test at 80°C for 30 minutes to 2 hours (and some-times up to 6 hours). The tannin test (sometimes coupled with a heat treatment) and the Bentotest are still used. In this study, we show that all these tests give much higher estimates of the haze risk than the risk assessed by a 24-48h treatment at 42°C, which represents a heat wave. For this purpose, we performed heat treatments ranging from 40 to 80°C in order to find out which test best reflects a heat wave episode. Each of these tests was carried out at different heating times (kinetic approach) and with wines presenting risks of protein breakage ranging from low to high. The results show that : 1) the test at 50°C for 1h (in a water bath) is by far the most correlated with the haze appearing when the wine is spent 24-48h at 42°C and 2) this test has a safety margin to choose the most adapted protein stabilisation treatment. Conversely, treatment at 80°C gives very high turbidities. The direct consequence of the 80°C-heat test is the use of too high doses of bentonite to eliminate a risk that is in fact poorly assessed. In this study dedicated to Muscat from Spain (Catalunya) wines, we show that it is possible, by means of a 1-hour heat test at 50°C carried out in the laboratory, to decide on the most appropriate treatment. In concrete terms, this translates into the reduction of bentonite doses, but also into the possibility of using oenological alternatives to this treatment.
DOI:
Issue: OENO Macrowine 2023
Type: Poster
Authors
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Keywords
Haze risk, Muscat, wine, heat test