Madeiras brasileiras na maturação de vinho aromático da cultivar Palava

Abstract

The use of wooden barrels for aging beverages, especially wine, is a practice that has been used for centuries to improve their sensorial characteristics. The most used wood is Oak (Quercus), which has a high cost, which allows exploring the use of alternative woods, such as Brazilian wood, as a way of reducing this cost and bringing differentiation. Thus, the objective of the work was to evaluate the effect of four Brazilian woods, Amburana, Cumaru, Ipê and Putumuju, on the sensorial and physicochemical characteristics of an aromatic white wine from Palava grape. To produce the wine, the grapes were destemmed, followed by the addition of an enzyme to facilitate extraction and increase the must yield during pressing. Debourbage was carried out in a stainless steel container followed by alcoholic fermentation. As soon as fermentation was complete, the experiment began, which consisted of separating the experimental units into triplicata, where the wines were placed in 4.6L bottles. The dosage of the wooden cubes was calculated in relation to the approximate surface of a 225L oak barrel. The contact time with the cubes was 15 days. Afterwards, the wine was bottled and kept in a room with a temperature of around 20°C until sensory evaluation. With this, it was possible to observe that there were some statistical differences probably due to wood composition: greater intensity of the yellow color (A420) for treatments T3 and T5 (cumaru and ipê); and higher glycerol content in T5 wine (ipê). Regarding the sensorial impact, we observed that Putumuju brings floral and fruity aromas to the wines; Cumaru and Ipê can increase aromatic complexity; and Amburana gives a greater woody aroma.