Emmanuel Brenon¹, Sylvette Morin², Christine Pascal^1
1 Vinventions, Enology team, France
² Vignerons des Coteaux Romanais, France

Aromatic Sauvignon blanc wines with characteristic profiles are sought after by consumers. Being able to achieve these profiles in a repeatable and predictable way is one of winemakers’ objectives. The first winemaking decision, i.e. the choice of harvest date, seems to play an important role in achieving this objective.
The aim of this work was to evaluate the possibility of using voltammetry as describe in part 1 of this article to decide on a harvest date in line with an aromatic profile for Sauvignon blanc.
To achieve this, 17 plots of Sauvignon blanc from the Loire Valley (Vignerons des Côteaux Romanais, Touraine, France) were monitored during ripening using voltammetric measurements on the grapes. 4 plots were vinified in small volumes at 3 harvest dates. Wines were assessed by tasting and varietal thiols (3SH, 3SHA and 4MSP) were measured.
This work highlighted the possibility of choosing a harvest date according to the evolution of the voltammetric signal through a synthetic index (Maturox) to produce wines with different and controlled aromatic profiles. In particular, wines from harvests between 0 and 12 days after the Maturox minimum were described as “fermentative” or “veggie”, those from harvests between 12 and 19 days after the Maturox minimum as “varietal thiol” (boxwood), and those from harvests 19 days after the index minimum as “fermentative thiol” (citrus).

To find out more, read the full article, which can be downloaded below.