Influence of grapevine age on general physicochemical and phenolic parameters of Rabigato (Vitis vinifera L.) white variety: Results from three vintages

¹ Instituto Politécnico de Viseu, Escola Superior Agrária, Viseu, Portugal
² Centro de Química de Vila Real (CQ-VR), Laboratório de Química Alimentar e do Vinho, Vila Real, Portugal
³ Adega Cooperativa de Freixo de Numão, Portugal
⁴ Università degli Studi di Milano, Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences, Milan, Italy
⁵ LEAF - Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal

^* Corresponding author: antoniojordao@esav.ipv.pt

Abstract

The preservation of the old vine heritage, combined with the fact that old vines could present greater resistance to biotic and abiotic factors, has led to an increase in research studies about the contribution of vine age on grape and wine quality. Thus, the main goal of this work was to evaluate the potential influence of grapevine age on several general physicochemical and phenolic parameters during grape maturation of a Rabigato white grape variety. Therefore, grapes from two adjacent vineyards, with an age difference of 30 years (one with 20 years and the other with 50 years, at the beginning of this study) were studied. At technological maturation, the results obtained for the three consecutive vintages studied (2019 to 2021), and for the general physicochemical parameters analysed, do not seem to indicate a clear differentiation between the grape musts obtained from the younger and the older vineyards. However, for grape phenolics, the results suggest that vine age could be a potential factor on phenolic content, nevertheless not totally confirmed by the results at technological maturation during the three consecutive vintages considered. With this work we will contribute to expand the knowledge about the potential impact of the vine age on grape composition.