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…

Generation of radicals in wine by cavitation and study of their interaction with metals, phenols and carboxylic acids

High-power ultrasounds have been related to an accelerated aging of wines, an effect that has been associated to the formation of radical species caused by the cavitation phenomenon [1]. This phenomenon consists of the formation of bubbles in the liquid medium that, when they collapse, cause high-pressure hot spots and temperatures of up to 4800 k [2], notably increasing the reactivity in the medium.

Effects of the biodynamic preparations 500 and 501 on vine and berry physiology, pedology and the soil microbiome

In the pursuit of increasing sustainability, climate change resiliency and independence of synthetic pesticides in agriculture, the interest of consumers and producers in organic and biodynamic farming is steadily increasing. This is in particular the case for the vitivinicultural industry in Europe, where more and more producers are converting from organic to biodynamic farming. However, clear scientific evidence showing that biodynamic farming improves vine physiology, vine stress resilience, berry or wine quality, or is more sustainable for the environment is still lacking although this issue has been addressed by several research teams worldwide.

The characteristics of strong territorial brands: the case of Champagne

While most brands belong to individual enterprises, some brands belong to groups of enterprises based in a single territory. This conceptual paper examines the characteristics

VITIGEOSS Business Service: Task scheduling optimization in vineyards

Agriculture plantations are complex systems whose performance critically depends on the execution of several types of tasks with precise timing and efficiency to respond to different external factors. This is particularly true for orchards like vineyards, which need to be strictly monitored and regulated, as they are sensitive to diverse types of pests, and climate conditions. In these environments, managing and optimally scheduling the available work force and resources is not trivial and is usually done by teams of senior managers based on their experience. In this regard, having a baseline schedule could help them in the decision process and improve their results, in terms of time and resources spent.

IMPACT OF METSCHNIKOWIA PULCHERRIMA DURING FERMENTATION ON AROMATIC PROFILE OF VIDAL BLANC ICEWINE

Non-Saccharomyces yeasts not only increase microbial diversity during wine fermentation, but also have a positive effect on improving wine aroma. Among these non-Saccharomyces yeast species, Metschnikowia pulcherrima is often studied and used in winemaking in recent years, but its application in icewine has been rarely reported. In this study, indigenous M. pulcherrima strains and Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains (commercial and indigenous strains) were sequentially inoculated for icewine fermentations; meanwhile, pure S. cerevisiae fermentations were used as the control; indigenous strains used above were screened from spontaneous fermentations of Vidal blanc icewine.