Syrah wine from São Paulo’s high lands – Brazil, chemical and sensorial characterization, with a extemporaneous production cycle

Abstract

Brazil has a wide territorial area, with much differentiated edaphoclimatic characteristics. It makes this study important to characterize new regions with viticulture potential. The state of São Paulo, in southeastern Brazil, covers six different climatic types, all considered humid. São Bento do Sapucaí, where the study was carried out, has a high-altitude tropical climate, with dry winter and rainy summer; the coolest month temperature is below 18ºC and in the hottest month above 22ºC. The terroir has a direct connection with the wine oenological quality, so the grapevine cycle modification made it possible to harvest grapes with chemical and phenolic maturation ideal for fine wines production with a high quality standard. The objective of this study was to analyze the Vitis vinifera L. Syrah wine quality as well as chemical and organoleptic characteristics, with the practice of cycle inversion, in the city of São Bento de Sapucaí, in São Paulo, Brazil. The wine was analyzed one year after the packaging, it has IPT above 45 and IC of 9,98nm which suggests storage potential by international standards. The tonality was 0,987, (44, 43 and 11% of red, yellow and blue OD, respectively), showing that the wines still maintain vividness. The polymerized pigments percentage is almost 90%. The wine has more than forty different identified flavors, which demonstrates its aromatic complexity. The results indicate that the region has a vocation for fine wine production.