AREA I. Tannins
Project 20:

Tannins

Description:
It seeks to characterize and understand the tannin composition of grapes and wines of the red Carménère wine variety in the Maipo Valley and its effect on the sensory characteristics and mechanisms of astringency and bitterness in such wines. By means of this project an attempt to determine the optimum harvesting moment to obtain Premium wines, based on the evolution of the tannins in the berry will be made, developing an easy-to-apply follow up system.
This tool will provide a better approach to the issue of polyphenolic maturity and help to resolve the problem of “alcoholization” of wines, thus raising wine quality.

Outcomes:
To determine the optimum harvesting moment to obtain Premium wines in relation to the evolution of tannins in the berry, developing an easy-to-apply follow up system for the cellars.

Researcher’s observation:
The work of the multidisciplinary team involved in this project which is comprised of plant physiologists, viticulturists, biochemists, enologists and specialists in sensory analysis will contribute results from different perspectives, thus providing a comprehensive response and practical application of such results. This project poses a challenge comprising tannins from the vineyard to the bottle and we are sure it shall make a contribution to the knowledge and improvement in the future quality of Chilean wines.

Project Length: 4 years