Vine and Oak Extracts Sprayed as a Foliar?

Rosario Sánchez-Gómez, Eva P. Pérez-Alvarez, Rosario Salinas, Ana Gonzalo-Diago, Amaya Zalacain, Teresa Garde-Cerdan. “Effect of vine-shoot and oak extract foliar grapevine applications on oenological parameters, phenolic acids and glutathione content of white musts and wines,” Oeno One (2020).  

I stumbled across a fascinating paper in Oeno One from a research group in Spain. In this research, grapevine shoots were sprayed with vine-shoot and oak-wood extracts. The foliar sprays had the result of reducing the final Brix/Baumé of the grapes at harvest. The authors also noted a general increase in the wine color quality for the treated vines.

I think I would like to see the results from more trials, in more, different vineyards. However, this paper does seem to indicate that there is another way to dispose of vineyard canes after pruning than burning or chipping and composing them.

I’ll post the abstract here with a link to the original paper. I intend to follow procedure with any research I post. Where I can, I shall also describe why I think that such research is noteworthy.

Abstract

Aim: An oxidation process frequently occurs during white winemaking, affecting its quality. The aim was to study, for two years (2013 and 2014), the effects that foliar applications of vine-shoot (Airén (AVS) and Moscatel (MVS)) and oak wood (OW) extracts on Airén grapevines have on wine color, and must and wine glutathione, trans-GRP, trans-caftaric acid, and trans-p-coutaric acid content.
Methods and results: These compounds were analyzed by HPLC. The results showed that, in general, foliar application of Airén vine-shoot extracts did not affect glutathione concentration, and the other treatments decreased it. AVS2013-50 and AVS2014 samples were characterized by a high content of glutathione and trans-GRP, while MVS2014 samples retain high levels of trans-caftaric acid. trans-p-Coutaric acid concentration decreased after AVS2013 treatment, meanwhile in the 2014 season all applications increased its content. The content of these compounds in the wines was similar to those obtained in the musts. OW2013 showed the lowest value of Abs 420, likely because this treatment decreased glutathione concentration in musts.
Conclusions: The foliar applications of vine-shoots and oak extracts on Airén grapevines had a clear effect in reducing the wine alcohol degree and Baumé in case of grapes. This finding is interesting in the context of the current global warming change scenario. Although the two vintages studied were different, an improvement in the color quality was observed in both. The content of glutathione decreased from must to wine: the content in both matrices was lower in treated samples than in control samples, except for Airén extracts in both vintages. This means that glutathione is oxidized, avoiding the oxidation of other must and wine molecules.
Significance and impact of the study: These findings are important in relation to revalorizing waste from the vineyard, and thus being able to improve the quality of the white wine in relation to the oxidation processes that take place in the winemaking process.

Link:
https://oeno-one.eu/article/view/2547

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20870/oeno-one.2020.54.1.2547

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