Analysis of the main factors influencing the quality of wine from mechanically harvested grapes

Abstract

The wine sector is going today through a period of severe crisis mainly due to the process of globalization in which all the countries producing wine have entered into fierce competition with each other. As a consequence, the achievement of the product on the market exclusively depends on a good value for money. One of the main factors that affect the cost of running the vineyard and, therefore, the final price of the wine is certainly the grape harvest. For the reasons given above this technique, used to be performed manually, is today impossible to support except that there would be the use of the harvesting machine. It’s well known that the use of the harvesting machine has the limit of the production of must during harvest, that could reflect negatively on the quality of the final product. It depends on many factors including the physical-mechanical characteristics of the berry and the frequency of the shakers of the harvesting machine used. The aim of this work was to evaluate the influence of ambient factors on the quality of wines obtained from mechanically harvested grapes with different grape juice production. The results confirm that the control of some parameters such as grape juice production, ambient temperature and time of exposure of the harvested grapes to the ambient conditions is essential in order to obtain wines of quality from mechanically harvested grapes.