The effects of climate change are causing irreversible damage to our planet, affecting all areas of the agricultural sector, including grapevines. Rising temperatures, decreasing rainfall, and increasing CO2 levels have serious consequences for grape ripening, causing phenolic and technological ripening to occur at different rates, leading to what is known as thermal stress in grapevines.
This phenomenon leads to an increase in the alcohol content of the grapes, caused by a rapid accumulation of sugars in the grape, and with it, an imbalance between technological ripeness and phenolic and aromatic ripeness, resulting in grapes with less organoleptic potential.
Another consequence of heat stress is a decrease in the quality of the grapes, which is one of the main reasons why the wine sector needs new technologies that adapt to the current situation in wineries, such as earlier harvests, higher average grape yields, faster harvesting due to mechanization, and a progressive imbalance in the grapes’ main compounds of oenological interest.
AGROVIN GROUP WORKS FOR AND WITH WINERIES
Since its origins, Agrovin Group has worked alongside wineries, seeking optimal solutions to help them become more responsible and produce quality wines, thanks to the technical advice of our professionals, products, services, and systems.
In line with this, one of the objectives of Grupo Agrovin is to develop new technologies that help the wine sector optimize its processes and mitigate the effects that climate change is having on the wine industry, with the aim of improving the quality of its wines, extracting the maximum aromatic and phenolic potential from the so-called ‘climate change grapes’. This was the main reason that drove us to develop Ultrawine Perseo.
ULTRAWINE PERSEO. THE SOLUTION THAT IMPROVES THE QUALITY OF CLIMATE CHANGE GRAPES
Ultrawine Perseo has been developed by the Agrovin Group’s Technology Department, in collaboration with researchers in Agrochemistry and Food Technology from the University of Murcia and the University of Castilla-La Mancha. In addition, it has been approved by the OIV (International Organization of Vine and Wine) for the use of ultrasound technology as a permitted oenological practice and has recently obtained patents in the USA and New Zealand.
Ultrawine Perseo is an innovative oenological system designed to extract the maximum aromatic and phenolic potential from grapes using high-power, low-frequency ultrasound. It is a noble extraction technique that does not increase temperatures or pressure, which in turn optimizes the winemaking process.
In addition, its application manages to cancel out the effects of climate change on the ripening of grapes, controlling the alcohol content and enhancing the quality of the grapes to obtain a high-quality wine.
In organoleptic terms, its use in the production process results in high-quality musts with intense color and aroma. It thus improves the wine’s sensory qualities, respecting the varietal character of the grape and resulting in more aromatic, structured wines with better body.
It is a 100% sustainable ECO-technology suitable for responsible wineries, as its use enhances the extraction of phenolic and aromatic compounds, saving time, energy and, consequently, costs, while optimizing the resources available to the winery at all times. Tests show that Ultrawine Perseo, compared to the traditional maceration method, reduces maceration time by up to 50% and energy consumption by 15%, due to the low consumption of its components and the avoidance of the use of heat for extraction.
WHAT ITS TECHNOLOGY CONSISTS OF
Ultrawine-Perseo is a technology that allows the cold extraction of grape compounds using ultrasound. It applies high-power ultrasound to the crushed pulp, producing a process called cavitation in the surrounding medium.
Cavitation is a physical process that consists of the production of microbubbles that tend to collide with each other and release their energy. Minimum pressure Maximum pressure.
This aggressive collision of bubbles, together with the associated implosion process, causes the skin tissue to break down, facilitating the release of the phenolic compounds and aromatic precursors it contains. This allows wineries to reduce the time they spend on this process and thus optimize their production capacity by having more maceration tanks available.
Adapt your winery to climate change. Discover how with our Ultrawine Perseo technology.
ULTRASOUND APPLIED TO THE WINE-MAKING PROCESS
From 2015 to 2019, GRUPO AGROVIN has demonstrated that ultrasound is a valid technology for the sector. So much so that, in 2019, the OIV (International Organization of Vine and Wine) approved ultrasound as a suitable technology for the production of all categories of wine through resolution OIV-OENO 2019/934. We were the first company to use ultrasound in the wine-making process, which represents a major advance for wineries around the world.
The advantages of its application include:
- Reduction of energy costs by more than 15% compared to the traditional production process.
- Increased turnover of wine-making tanks due to shorter extraction times, reducing maceration times by 50%.
- More varietal wines with more violet tones and more stable color over time as a result of the high extraction of tannins from the grape skins.
In short, higher quality wines
Thanks to this system, more than 20 million liters of wine have already been produced using this technology, both in national and international wineries, with ours being the main ambassador of the Virgen de las Viñas group, the largest cooperative in Europe based in Tomelloso.
If you would like more information about our innovative system, please contact us.
