Geochemistry of Vrbničko Polje (Croatia) winegrowing site

The grape and wine industries have long sought rapid, reliable and cost-effective methods to screen and monitor all the stages of the winemaking process, which include grape ripening in the vineyard, harvest and grape reception at the weighbridge, the fermentation stage and the bottling of the final product.

In this work, results about the composition in polyphenols and polyamines in important wine-grape cultivars from the Emilia-Romagna region are presented. Spectrophotometric and HPLC analyses suggest that especially coloured berries are particularly rich of antioxidant species (stilbenes and catechins). Potential allergenic capability of biogenic amines was also characterized.

Sustainability is a key focus in viticulture, where managing abiotic and biotic stress presents a major challenge.

Since 1980, Château de l’Éclair has belonged to SICAREX Beaujolais and has been involved in experimentation for the Beaujolais vineyards. However, it is a commercial estate with profitability and quality constraints, which means that it has to meet the growing environmental expectations of consumers. Given the number of practices claimed to be environment-friendly, it is sometimes difficult to prioritize actions.

The traditional methods of grape extraction of enochemical compounds use very often mechanical energy by pistons such as the pigeage or mechanical energy produced by must (delestage, pumping over). Recent trend by winemaker is trying to introduce in the fermentation tank, whole berry grape to avoid even minimal oxidation. Unfortunately, the use of the traditional mechanical techniques aforementioned, very often do not guarantee the optimal extraction with residual sugars in the marc. Use of resonance waves (airmixingtm) and a slight overpressure by CO2 (adcftm) permit to work on whole berry guaranteeing the perfect extraction.