Comportamiento enológico de Arinarnoa, Marselan y Tannat (Vitis vinifera. L.) bajo distintas alternativas de vinificación en tinto

This work presents research conducted during the 2023 vintage, aiming to evaluate the response of Arinarnoa, Marselan, and Tannat grape varieties to different red winemaking alternatives. Grapes from each cultivar were characterized, with a particular focus on their phenolic composition, studying the extraction kinetics of these compounds from skins and seeds under controlled and winemaking conditions. The vinifications included traditional maceration and techniques known to modify the polyphenolic composition of wines, such as the use of pectolytic enzymes, the addition of enological tannins, and extended maceration. The wines were analyzed two months after devatting: total polyphenols, anthocyanins, tannins, along with color intensity and color quality. In the harvest considered, Marselan berries had the highest levels of total polyphenols, as well as tannins from both, skins and seeds. Marselan and Tannat had similar Anthocyanin contents, both of which were higher than those in Arinarnoa. The kinetics of seed tannin extraction correlated with the content of these compounds in the grapes, being higher in Marselan, lower in Arinarnoa, and intermediate in Tannat. However, the most remarkable feature of the study was the unusually low skin tannin extraction observed in Marselan, which was much lower than that found in Tannat and particularly Arinarnoa. Thus, during vinification, the addition of pectolytic enzymes resulted in the highest increase in anthocyanins and especially tannins in Marselan, the cultivar with the greatest restriction in extracting these compounds from the skins. In Arinarnoa, the effect of the enzymes was not significant, while in Tannat, it increased anthocyanin extraction, a cultivar characterized by low extractability of these compounds. In the wines, the effect of vinification techniques also depended on the cultivar. In Marselan, all alternatives to traditional maceration increased the total polyphenol content; in Arinarnoa, the effects were not significant, and in Tannat, they decreased. Nonetheless, enzyme addition increased the color of Arinarnoa (8%), being the treatment with the greatest effect on the phenolic composition of Marselan, increasing tannin content (51%), anthocyanins (17%), and color intensity (10%) compared to wines made by traditional maceration. However, the greatest increase in color for this cultivar was observed in wines treated with the addition of skin-derived enological tannins (16%), consistent with the naturally lower content of these compounds typically found in Marselan wines. In Arinarnoa, this treatment reduced color by 5%, and in Tannat, tannin addition had no significant effect on wine color. Extended maceration increased tannin content only in Marselan (45%), while having a negative effect on all measured variables in the other evaluated cultivars. Thus, the interaction of vinification technique with cultivar was evident. Therefore, this study highlights the importance of understanding cultivar characteristics to properly manage the winemaking process.