Study of the impact of vine cultivation technology on the Feteasca Neagra wine phenolic composition and antioxidant properties

Victoria Artem; Arina Oana Antoce; Elisabeta-Irina Geana; Roxana Elena Ionete

doi:10.1007/s13197-021-05182-6

Study of the impact of vine cultivation technology on the Feteasca Neagra wine phenolic composition and antioxidant properties

J Food Sci Technol. 2022 May;59(5):1715-1726. doi: 10.1007/s13197-021-05182-6. Epub 2021 Jun 22.

Authors

Victoria Artem^{1

2}, Arina Oana Antoce², Elisabeta-Irina Geana³, Roxana Elena Ionete³

Affiliations

¹ Research Station for Viticulture and Oenology Murfatlar, Calea Bucuresti str., no. 2, 905100 Murfatlar, Constanta, Romania.
² University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest, Faculty of Horticulture, Department of Bioengineering of Horti-Viticultural Systems, 59 Mărăşti Ave., Sector 1, 011464 Bucharest, Romania.
³ National Research and Development Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies, ICSI Rm. Valcea, 4th Uzinei Street, PO Raureni, Box 7, 240050 Rm. Valcea, Romania.

Abstract

In this work a comparative assessment was performed on individual and total polyphenols and biochemical properties of some Feteasca Neagra red wines obtained from grapes cultivated with different farming technologies (organic vs. conventional). The effect of a 30% cluster thinning treatment in both organic and conventional vineyard, compared to control plots with no thinning, was also monitored. The wines were obtained during two vintages, one with more favourable climatic conditions and one less favourable, in the period 2010-2019. Our results indicate that by applying a 30% cluster thinning treatment in the vineyard it is possible to increase the concentration of total and individual polyphenols of the resulted Feteasca Neagra wines. Furthermore, the differences observed between the phenolic profiles of wines from conventionally and organically produced grapes showed that organic Feteasca Neagra wines have higher phenolic compounds concentrations and antioxidant properties, with some important individual phenols accumulating in larger quantities than in the case of conventional wines. The beneficial effect of the organic cultivation is more evident in years characterised by less favourable climatic conditions. The statistical analysis tools applied to the analytical data allowed a good discrimination of experimental wine variants according to the vine cultivation technology (organic vs. conventional, with and without cluster thinning) and vintage. Thus, the results indicated that the applied cultivation technologies, especially when both organic cultivation and cluster thinning are combined, can greatly improve the polyphenolic content of Feteasca Neagra wines. The absolute value of the increase in polyphenol concentration was higher in favourable years, but the relative increase, in percentages, as compared to control wines, was higher in less favourable years. The combination of both viticultural practices may be thus exploited in order to obtain wines with higher polyphenolic content, which leads to better structure, better ageing potential, enhanced nutritional and antioxidant properties.

Keywords: Antioxidant activity; Cluster thinning; Organic versus conventional; Phenolic compounds; Red wines.