Estudio de técnicas de higienización mediante proyección de dióxido de carbono y renovación aromática mediante inserción de duelillas en barricas usadas

Abstract

The current trend among wine consumers is moving increasingly toward the consumption of high quality and high value wines. Those wines are usually characterized with intense color and a well-integrated fine wood bouquet. In order to produce quality wines with these characteristics, the winemaker’s only possible response is the use of oak barrels in the ageing of their wine or alternative systems with oak wood adition. Classic alternatives for oak aging without barrels are oak staves into stainless-steel container or oak fragments into a mesh submerged in wine. Frequently, those systems are used with micro-oxygenation tecnologies. This study presents the results from integrating a system, setting staves into the barrel, to provide multiple hues and aromas derived from barrels, so that it is possible to reuse barrels and extend their useful life. The research shows how the wine contained in these barrels undergoes the same process of ageing as it would in new barrels, but at a lower cost than that involved in replacing the barrels. This is all carried out without compromising the high quality of the wines, while producing them at a competitive final price. However, the penetration of microorganisms into the barrels over the years increases the risks of wine spoilage. Currently the most widely used technique for barrel sanitation is the application of sulfur dioxide gas combined with physical treatments (pressured hot ando cold wáter or steam treatmens) But sulfur dioxide gas for barrel sanitation has been forbidden by EU directives. Therefore it is necessary to develop effective and economically viable cleanliness technologies so that the barrels may be reused. We propose an alternative to traditional cleanliness methods, a new carbón spraying treatment that can be integrated into the cleaning line in the winery itself, giving the wine-making industry an adequate barrel maintenance system. Finally, we will analyze the impact of classic aging with different oak barrels and with setting staves into the barrel system. Althought selection of technologies is different for each wine and for each winemaker, those studyes give us the way to determinate which system for wine aging using oak Wood is more suitable for our wine.