Our very own Drew Horton, experimental winemaker with the Grape Breeding & Enology program, has recently published a new paper entitled “Effect of Whole Cluster Fermentation on Phenolics in Cold-Hardy Hybrid Wines.” The paper was published this month via Food and Bioprocess Technology.

Unfortunately, there is a perception that red wines made from cold-hardy hybrid grapes are of lower quality than those made from Vitis vinifera, in part because of their lower tannin content. In an effort to find solutions to this problem of lower tannins in cold-climate red wines, the research group compared three sets of wines made from UMN-bred ‘Frontenac’ and ‘Marquette’ grapes. These wines were made with either no whole-cluster fermentation (WC), 25% WC fermentation, or 50% WC fermentation. They found that the wines made with 50% WC fermentation of ‘Marquette’ grapes tested better with a panel of tasters than the control wine without WC fermentation. This finding indicates that there are ways of improving consumer experience of wine quality for cold-hardy hybrid wines. 

To read more, click here for a link to the full paper.