Macrowine 2021

Vinhos de talha: to pitch or not to pitch

Abstract

In Alentejo, south of Portugal there is a traditional way of fermenting wines in clay vessels, known as “Vinhos de Talha”. Clay vessels were traditionally impermeabilized using pine pitch, creating a barrier between the fermenting must and the clay. Due to this unusual production technology that uses of clay vessels, instead of inox or wood vessels, “Vinhos de Talha” present unique characteristics increasingly appreciated by national and international consumers when compared with wine obtained by the said traditional methods of winemaking. Although the positive consumers feedback, there is little literature about the physical-chemical characteristics of these wines (Martins et al, 2018; Cabrita et al, 2018). This work aims to characterize the volatile composition of white wines produced in clay vessels with different coatings and to contribute to the knowledge and preservation of these wines that are a unique cultural heritage. Wine samples were produced during 2019 vintage from white grapes, using the traditional technology associated to these wines. The clay vessels used have different coatings: epoxy resin, bee wax, new pitch, old pitch and no coating. Wines were analyzed after the opening of the vessels in November. Oenological parameters as alcohol, pH, total and volatile acidity, sulphur dioxide, and reducing sugars were measured according to OIV (OIV, 2014) The volatile composition was analyzed by headspace solid phase microextraction hyphenated with gas chromatography / mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC/MS), following a methodology based on Martins et al (2018). A linear discriminant analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 20, and as it is a supervised technique where there is the need to assign groups of variables to the data set, we considered the volatile compounds in wines (independent variables), to classify different types of wines (grouping variable), according to the vessel coating. LDA shows that wines can be discriminated according to different clay vessels impermeabilization materials, being the most similar the ones from clay vessels with no coating and the ones from clay vessels with old pitch.

DOI:

Publication date: September 15, 2021

Issue: Macrowine 2021

Type: Article

Authors

Maria João Cabrita

MED – Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development, Escola de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade de Évora, Pólo da Mitra, Ap. 94, 7006-554 Évora, Portugal.,Raquel GARCIA MED – Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development, Departamento de Fitotecnia, Escola de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade de Évora, Pólo da Mitra, Ap. 94, 7006-554 Évora, Portugal. Flávia FREITAS; Marco Gomes da SILVA LAQV, REQUIMTE, Departamento de Química, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal.

Contact the author

Keywords

vinhos de talha; volatile profiling; hs-spme; gc/ms

Citation

Related articles…

Synthesis of the contribution of the Giesco (group of international experts of vitivinicultural systems for cooperation) to the study of terroirs

Since 1998, the GiESCO (previously named GESCO: Groupe d’Etude des Systèmes de COnduite de la vigne) has provided the scientific community with relevant contributions to the study of terroirs. Here is a synthesis of the main terroir-related fields and the major ideas the GiESCO has developed: Basic Terroir Unit and climate, Vine Ecophysiology and microclimate – moderate drought, Vineyard heterogeneity and new technologies, Viticultural Terroir Unit and canopy management, Terroir – Territory and man.

Read More

NACs intra-family hierarchical transcriptional regulatory network orchestrating grape berry ripening

Considering that global warming is changing berry ripening timing and progression, uncovering the molecular mechanisms and identifying key regulators governing berry ripening could provide important tools in maintaining high quality grapes and wine. NAC (NAM/ATAF/CUC) transcription factors represent an interesting family due to their key role in the developmental processes control, such as fruit-ripening-associated genes expression, and in the regulation of multiple stress responses. Between the 74 NAC family members, we selected 12 of them as putative regulators of berry ripening: NAC01, NAC03, NAC05, NAC11, NAC13, NAC17, NAC18, NAC26, NAC33, NAC37, NAC60 and NAC61.

Read More

Asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation with online multidetection is a viable tool to investigate colored red wine colloids

Despite its relevance for wine quality and stability, red wine colloids have not still been
sufficiently investigated, an occurrence due to the lack of suitable analytical techniques to study them as they are present in wine.

Read More

FIRST APPLICATION OF LACHANCEA THERMOTOLERANS IN THE FERMENTATION OF “VINO SANTO” AS BIOLOGICHAL ACIDIFIER.

The exploitation of secondary metabolic pathways of non-Saccharomyces yeasts is a promising approach to protect traditional wines from the ongoing climate change, which can alter their peculiar features by modifying the chemical composition of grape musts. In this regard, an interesting example is the sequential inoculum of Lachancea thermotolerans and Saccharomyces. Cerevisiae. The aim of the sequential inoculum is to increase titratable acidity by lactic acid accumulation, to lower pH and to reduce the alcohol and acetic acid content in wine.

Read More

Modélisation du régime thermique des sols de vignoble du Val de Loire : relations avec des variables utilisables pour la caractérisation des terroirs

Temperature has a decisive influence on the growth and development of plants (Carbonneau et al., 1992). In particular, in the case of the vine, the temperature is an omnipresent variable in the climatic indices (Huglin, 1986). For reasons of convenience, these indices use the temperature of the air measured under shelter in a meteorological station, making the implicit hypothesis of a concordance between this temperature and that of the sites of perception of the thermal stimulus by the plant. However, development may be more dependent on soil temperature than air temperature (Kliewer, 1975). Morlat (1989) thus verified that the variability in the precocity of the vine, positively correlated with the quality of the harvest and of the wine in the Loire Valley, was mainly explained by differences in temperature of the root zones.

Read More