Spectrophotometric measurements of red wine colour and phenolic content are proven tools for researchers and winemakers. In an effort to encourage New Zealand producers to undertake grape colour measurement to develop style, vineyard and vintage benchmarks, the research team from Plant & Food Research Marlborough looked to refine the established Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) grape berry analysis protocols.
In collaboration with Marama Labs Wellington, the research team also assessed the role that the CloudSpec™ instrument might play in facilitating colour measurement in grapes.
They found that the CloudSpec instrument has proven particularly useful when attempting to develop rapid colour measurements for grape berries. The pilot grape berry phenolic analysis method shortcuts the centrifugation, acidification and sample dilution steps of the reference AWRI method. This accelerates sample processing while achieving further improvements in accuracy.
The CloudSpec opens the possibility for winemakers to easily capture colour and phenolics information on wines throughout the winemaking process: from grapes to juice, through to ferment and bottling without any clarification.