Xavier Hastoy¹, Stéphanie Marquier¹, Géraud Blanc¹, Christine Lagarde Pascal^2
1 Mas la Chevalière, domaine Laroche, chemin rural 13, Route de Murviel, 34500 Béziers
² Vinventions, Enology team, 7 avenue Yves Cazeaux, 30230 Rodilhan

Sauvignon blanc wines typically present aromas of grapefruit, passionfruit, or boxtree. Intensity of these aromas is often linked to their quality. The influence of the harvest date on the fresh profile of the Sauvignon blanc is well known. A simple technique could facilitate maturation testing and facilitates decision making for harvest date. Linear sweep voltammetry on disposable printed electrodes offers this ease of use, and the data from Petit and Gros Manseng in the South West or from Chardonnay in Bourgogne has already demonstrated that the voltammetric signals showed significant decreases at the time of the optimal dates for obtaining the fresh or thiol profiles. This data will be presented in this article.
The objective of this work is to evaluate the use of linear sweep voltammetry on disposable printed electrodes to make decision on harvest date to produce Sauvignon Blanc wines with fresh profile.
The maturation of three plots was followed up using this method, in parallel with traditional maturity controls. One of the plots was harvested on two harvest dates, and two vinification processes, with and without maceration on must lees, were carried on. Finally, after alcoholic fermentation, the wines produced from this trial were compared to the wines harvested at the traditional date for the domain.
Same behavior of voltammetric signals was observed here. The wines obtained from the harvests on these dates showed a fresher character than those harvested with traditional maturation control, which confirmed the advantage of using this technique in the initiation of the harvesting.

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