How to make a red wine that consumers prefer

How to make red wine that consumers prefer

Novozymes has started up a small experimental winery in the Bordeaux district to test wine enzymes and processes under practical conditions. The focus of the latest research is on making a subtle, rounded, premium red wine.

With the enzyme Vinozym® Vintage FCE, it is easier to release the juice and tannins from the grape and increase the colour of red wine.

Novozymes' latest research project into wine is a pilot-scale winery designed and run by Rose-Marie Canal. It is known as the Wine Experimental Cellar (WEC) and was started up in 2002. It provides a base for testing biotechnological processing aids in winemaking - wine enzymes as well as selected yeasts and bacteria - in conjunction with Novozymes' distribution partner, Lamothe-Abiet.

Near Bordeaux
The Wine Experimental Cellar is located in the Libourne area north of Bordeaux (appellation Graves de Vayres) in France. It uses grapes from a local vineyard, and Novozymes has experimented on two varieties so far - Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.

All this is nothing new to Rose-Marie Canal. She grew up on a vineyard near Perpignan in the south of France, and at the age of six she was out in the vineyard pruning grapes. Wine and winemaking have always been a big part of her life. She studied oenology at the renowned Wine Faculty of the University of Bord eaux and completed a PhD on the release of yeast polysaccharides during ageing on lees.

	These tanks hold 2 hl and there are 40 at the Wine Experimental Cellar near Bordeaux.

She has been with Novozymes since 1989, working initially in Switzerland on application development and marketing for the wine industry. In 2001 she moved back to Bordeaux, where Novozymes now has its operational staff working on wine enzymes, including Rose-Marie Canal, Rémi LévFque and Bertrand Garrigues. Rémi and Bertrand are responsible for marketing and sales worldwide in the wine industry and they communicate with distributors.

Rose-Marie and her colleagues decide exactly when to harvest the grapes, what grapes to pick and how to process them in the experimental cellar. The pilot winery's plant includes 40 tanks, each with a capacity of 2 hl and equipped with a cooling system. To ensure reliable scientific results, each experiment, including the control, is carried out in duplicate.

"Ever since the 1980s Novozymes has been extensively financing research work by sponsoring PhD students in collabor-ation with the Wine Faculty at the University of Bordeaux. The focus of the research has been to understand the mode of action of enzymes and their effect at molecular level," says Rose-Marie Canal. "Now we have entered a new phase in which we want to be able to demonstrate the performance of our enzymes under winery conditions. That's why we opened the Wine Experimental Cellar. It works just like a small winery and it is impossible to get results like these in a laboratory. We can integrate the use of enzymes with investigations into the winemaking process."

Redder red wines
The primary enzyme that has been tested is the extraction enzyme Vinozym® Vintage FCE, launched in 2002. "Extraction enzymes for treating the crushed grapes represent the largest single market for our wine enzymes," comments Rémi LévFque.

In 2002 the first trials in the WEC proved that it was possible to extract more colour and more tannins with new Vinozym Vintage FCE while increasing yields of free-run wine. In 2003 the effect of mechanical action during extraction and prefermentation was tested.

What consumers want
In 2004 the goal was to produce a red wine for the premium segment of the market with the help of enzymes and adaptations of the winemaking process.

"Wine consumption has always been high in traditional European markets but now wine is becoming more and more popular elsewhere in the world. Wine consumers are demanding more premium wines ranging in price from EUR 3 to EUR 6; this segment is growing," says Rémi.

To identify the best type of red wine for meeting the requirements of the premium segment, a tasting of wines produced by estates or wine merchants was organised by Novozymes and Lamothe-Abiet. The answer was a non-woody wine bottled the year after fermentation (in May/June in the Northern Hemisphere) and sold within two years at a price of around EUR 6. The desired wine should have a smooth and elegant tannin structure due to a moderate extraction. In the case of premium red wines, the consumer prefers a subtle, fruity wine that is not too astringent. The question Rose-Marie asked in 2004 as she was processing the grapes in the winery was: "How can enzymes help to make this type of wine?"

"Many of the premium red wines produced are too concentrated," Rose-Marie Canal comments. "These wines suffer from over-extraction."

The right amount of tannins
Rose-Marie also points out that there is no need to go to a high temperature at the end of maceration to extract more tannins because enzymes allow the tannins to be extracted easily at the beginning. "Consumers today don't like the taste of a red wine made with high extraction, especially in the premium segment. Consumers want more fruity, subtle red wine, but they also want structure. They want some body in the wine, and this can be achieved with enzymes."

The concentration of tannins can vary depending on winemaking practices. The use of Vinozym Vintage FCE - a cell wall-degrading enzyme - in a proper process allows the nece ssary concentration of tannins to be obtained.

When using enzymes, Rose-Marie Canal recommends avoiding an extended macera-tion time, reducing mechanical action (pumping over and punching down), and lowering the temperature towards the end of the extraction process.

	The Novozymes wine team is searching for a way to make a more subtle, more colourful and fruitier red wine. From the left: Rémi LévFque, Rose-Marie Canal and Bertrand Garrigues.

Taste panel
March 17, 2005 was the day of the second
tasting of the 2004 vintage from the Wine Experimental Cellar. Expert tasters were invited to give their verdict on the young wine. They tasted wines made in an identi-cal way from identical grapes, with the only difference being treatment with the enzyme Vinozym Vintage FCE. "They confirmed that the treated wines have more colour and a good structure," says Rose-Marie Canal.

The results differed according to the grape variety, but the panel generally preferred the enzyme-treated wine at this stage in its development. The Merlot enzyme-treated wine had more aroma and a more persistent flavour than the control wine. The Cabernet Sauvignon enzyme-treated wine was judged to be of a higher quality both in terms of aroma and structure. Rose-Marie Canal comments, "Our experience is that the enzyme-treated wines last longer, so we will look at these wines again in a year's time."

There has been great interest in the process to make more subtle, fruitier, smoother red wines. For those who are interested, all the research and evaluation work is carefully documented week by week during the harvest in a newsletter called The WEC Weekly. Winemakers and oenologists can follow step by step from when the grapes are crushed until when the wines are ready.

"The WEC is the tool we use to document product claims under winery conditions. By teaming up with Novozymes, customers will get precise information on product application according to the desired wine. This information is useful for improving production and wine quality," says Rémi LévFque.

Though the WEC is located in Bordeaux, similar results have been obtained on other grape varieties in other wine districts and countries. Based on the winery trials, Novozymes is now able to give qualified practical advice not just on the use of enzymes, but on process adaptations to make the wine that the market wants.