Evolução da maturação de uvas chardonnay em município da campanha gaúcha destinadas à espumantização

Abstract

The Campanha Gaúcha Region is located in the southern half of Rio Grande do Sul State, and has emerged as one of the new poles and promising producers in the production of fine wines in Brazil. The region is characterized by it’s dry and hot summers, with average temperatures between 30 ° C, which contributes to a complete maturation of the grapes. In contrast, the increase in the concentration of sugars in the berries during the period of maturation, ends up promoting a decrease of desired organic acids for the production of sparkling wine. Focusing the sparkling wine market segment, which is becoming more importante in consumption and production in recent years, this study aims to identify the ideal moment to harvest the variety Chardonnay bound for sparkling wines produced in Campanha Gaúcha. The experiment was conducted in vineyard located in Dom Pedrito, RS, and had as experimental design called IT three treatments, T2 and T3 performed in triplicate, and each treatment corresponded to a distinct period of maturation of the bunches. T1 and T2 were collected on 10 January, but the criteria used for the selection of clusters was related to sun exposure in which they were, and T1 the interior bunches of leaf canopy and T2 bunches exposed to greater brightness.. T3 was harvested when the grapes had reached the maximum level of accumulation of sugars desired in sparkling winemaking. The vinification methods were conducted equally for the three treatments and physical-chemical analysis such as total acidity, ethanol and pH were held in the Experimental Winery of the Federal University of Pampa, located in Dom Pedrito, RS. After the results of analysis of must and wine, the data were subjected to analysis of variance and means were compared by Tukey test at 5% probability. Results showed that T3 showed higher ethanol content compared to T1 and T2, due to the higher degree of grape maturation, thus degrading the acids responsible for refreshing sparkling, preventing such treatment for this purpose. The T2 showed total acidity superior to treatment T3, also justified by the harvesting period in which it was submitted, and present acceptable ethanol content for the production of sparkling. Finally, the T1 showed higher acidity than the other treatments, can be justified by the shortest period of ripening of the grapes, the result of an early harvest, the alcohol content is within the acceptable values for the preparation of base wine. Based on the results, it is concluded that the early harvest is a useful tool for the winemaker to obtain grapes with different characteristics in the same vineyard, with particular emphasis on the T2, early harvest of grapes exposed to the sun, the balance between acidity, pH and sugars, necessary conditions to ensure the aromatic and gustatory freshness of a quality base wine.