Economic-environmental impact analysis of alternative systems for red wine ageing in re-used barrels
Graphical abstract
Introduction
The food industry is currently using several techniques for improve their production process and resource management (Nabavi-Pelesaraei et al., 2016) and currently is necessary to modelling the and measure the input as row material and energy, and outputs as products and waste (Nabavi-Pelesaraei et al., 2014; Qasemi-Kordkheili and Nabavi-Pelesaraei, 2014).
An important food industry is winery production, where there are several processes to be optimized and researches always are looking to improve it and propose alternatives to traditional production process. For example, Oxidative vinification in oak barrels has great advantages, since its wood, when in direct contact with the wine, will give it some aromas and phenolic compounds, with the consequent modification of the aromatic and gustatory characteristics (Del Alamo-Sanza and Nevares, 2014; Ribéreau-Gayon, 1999; Zamora, 2003). This process in oak barrels provides the product with aroma, taste, color, and body; therefore, the product is called ageing wine, and represents an increase in added value and quality (González-Arenzana et al., 2019).
This type of ageing wines has become a standard among the main producing countries of top-quality wines, but their use involves high economic costs due to:
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Difficulty of access to oak wood due mainly to the shortage.
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Investment in barrels and high cost.
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Limited life of barrels (5–7 years).
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Losses due to absorption and losses due to evaporation of the wood from a new barrel.
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Maintenance, cleaning and use of barrels (cost).
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Space needs and high volume.
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Immobilization of wine, with the consequent economic cost.
The cost of production and, consequently, the sale price of the wines, are directly linked to this process; which has led to the development of alternative ageing systems to the barrel. It is in emerging countries where oxidative winemaking has gained more momentum with alternative systems to oak barrels, due mainly to the lack of specific regulations in these countries which regulate the technologies and additives to be used in wine making makes them suitable for the development and use of these alternative practices.
According to the 2016 Barrel & Oak Survey Report (Phillips, 2016), in the USA the number of wineries that consider going from barrels to oak alternatives has increased steadily; for example, 38% of the respondents to a survey indicate that they would consider moving from the use of wooden barrels to the use of alternative barrels. The survey shows that in wines with bottle prices in the range of $ 14 to $ 25, producers do not consider oak alternatives as a substitute for the barrel, while in the range of $ 7 to $ 10USD they would consider it.
In the European Union, the use of oak fragment for winemaking was not included in Annex IV - List of Authorized Oenological Practices and Treatments, of EC Regulation 1.493/1.999, which establishes the Common Organization of the Wine Market, so that the practice was still prohibited in that region.
This situation was corrected relatively recently, through COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No. 1507/2006 of October 11, 2006, which amended Regulations (EC) No. 1622/2000, (EC) No. 884/2001 and (EC) No 753/2002, which lay down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 1493/1999, establishing the common organization of the market in wine, as regards the use of pieces of oak in the production of wines and the designation and presentation of those that have been subjected to this treatment.
As indicated above, oak barrels transfer various substances to wine, thus modifying their organoleptic characteristics in a natural way. However, the transfer of these substances is limited and ends up being exhausted throughout the life of the barrel. Currently there are several alternatives to try to “regenerate a barrel” after years of service and organoleptic loss, differentiating between those that involve the contribution of new wood and those seeking the aromatic reuse of the wood from the barrel itself. This article focuses on the current options of providing new oak wood in 225 L depleted barrels for winemaking. The alternative methods studied are:
- a)
Chips. Roasted oak chips are introduced into a bag of polymeric cylindrical material for the infusion or in stainless steel mesh that is inserted through the filling hole of the barrel. The fragments used should not remain in contact with the bottom of the barrel at any time (Arapitsas et al., 2004). The period of use varies from 4 to 8 weeks, with a maximum number of uses of one and a dosage in breeding between 1 and 4 g/L (Alencar et al., 2018; Cebrian-Tarancon et al., 2018; de Simón et al., 2010; Pérez-Coello et al., 2000).
- b)
Chained strings: They are linked (a series of strips at their ends and are inserted through the filling hole of the barrel.) The last strip is anchored to the closing plug of said barrel facilitating the later extraction of the set. The period of use extends from 8 to 24 months, with a maximum number of uses of two and a dosage in breeding between 2 and 6 g/L (Zakrzewski, 1991).
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Inner casing of the barrel (Fig. 1). It consists of introducing and fixing the barrel with some staves (with 90 cm long, 6 cm wide and 1 cm thick, with an approximate usable area of 0.126 m2 per stave). This operation requires the dismantling of one of the bottoms of the barrel for the insertion of the staves. The period of use varies from 3 to 8 months, with a maximum number of uses of three, and a dosage in breeding between 9 and 16 staves. The staves are fixed to the barrel by polymer rods and stainless steel screws (de Simón et al., 2010).
As indicated above, the Rioja DOC (Regulatory Board of Denomination of Origen Rioja) does not allow the use of alternative products, which implies the use of a large number of barrels. On 12-31-2016, the total number of oak barrels of 225 L for ageing amounted to 1,368,359 units in that region (Ouakouak et al., 2014). Currently, the barrel purchase costs range between 600 and 900 €/French oak barrels of Quercus petraea and 300–450 €/American oak barrels of Quercus alba. These high costs have led to the introduction of alternative materials for winemaking in countries such as Australia, Chile, Argentina, and the United States, among others, which is allowed by its more flexible legislation. In Spain (except in the DOC Rioja) the use of chips for all types of wines is allowed, without obligation to indicate it, and it is only incompatible with the labeling of “fermented”, or “aged” or “servant”, “In barrels”. And it is in this area where the current research places its interest.
Adding chips, sticks and staves is not a new procedure and several research report analysis related to adding wood materials to barrels because lets a shorter oaking period and better results in terms of flavor and reduction of astringents (Clodoveo et al., 2016); for example, Canas et al. (2016) analyze the physicochemical and sensory evaluation of wine brandies aged using oak and chestnut wood simultaneously in wooden barrels and in stainless steel tanks adding wood staves, Sánchez-Palomo et al. (2017) Improve analyze the improvement of white wines by contact with oak chips at different winemaking stages, Gómez García-Carpintero et al. (2012) report the impact of using oak chips in alcoholic or in malolactic fermentation on volatile and sensory composition of red wines and Ortega-Heras et al. (2010) compare the differences in the phenolic composition and sensory profile between red wines aged in oak barrels and wines aged with oak chips. Those researches indicate that alternative ageing process adding wood materials are academic and industrial interest research area; however, there is not and study indicating the environmental impact for use them.
However, an environmental impact analysis is not enough for winemaker as decisionmaker. If the analysis of production costs associated with each one of the wine ageing alternatives by oxidative fermentation from depleted barrels is taken into account, it should begin by establishing the average consumption of chips, sticks or staves associated with each of them.
This research has two objectives, the first is to report an environmental analysis of the ageing process of red wine with alternative methods in depleted oak barrels, that is, with at least 6 years of previous use, for which a life cycle analysis is used (LCA/Life Cycle Assessment) for each liter of wine aged in barrels for an average period equivalent to six months. LCA technique is selected because in recent research applied to food industry, it has demonstrated to be an efficient technique for identify critical process with high impact to environment (Kaab et al., 2019; Sabzevari et al., 2015) and companies using environmental focus are more productive and efficient (Shabanzadeh-Khoshrody et al., 2016).
However, looking to provide a financial analysis to winemakers, the second objective is to carry out an economic analysis of the alternative methods of the wine ageing process and compare it with the use of new barrels. In this way, the decisions taken by a winemaker to make use of these options will not only depend on the environmental impact analysis, but also on the costs incurred in each of the processes and the time required to carry it out. All of this is done to obtain competitive advantages in the market with an early entry to it without losing quality in final product complying and satisfying the standards established by wine’s regulatory organizations. Thus, the results obtained from this research will allow the winemaker to make decisions from an environmental and economic point of view on the type of ageing process to use.
The contribution of this study is that it complements the existing information on traditional methods of ageing. Recent studies indicate that the traditional ageing of a liter of red wine in 225-L barrels during a period of six months generates an environmental impact superior to the same ageing in 300 l and 500 L barrels during the same period. For example, in the category of environmental impact related to Global Warming, the barrel ageing of 225 L of Quercus petraea species has an environmental impact of 3.18E-02 kg- CO2 eq./L, while the same ageing in barrels of 300 and 500 L represents an environmental impact of 2.18 E-02 kg- CO2 eq./L and 1.53E-02 kg- CO2 eq./L (Flor et al., 2018).
As indicated above, these data have generated the need to compare the new methods of ageing with traditional methods, where variation in environmental impact is observed, so that 225 L barrels are selected, only allowed in the Qualified Denomination of Origin Rioja, through Order APA/3332/2007 of November 2, which modifies the Regulations of the Qualified Designation of Origin and its Regulatory Council (BOE nº 275 of 16.11.07).
To carry out the research, oak woods of the genus Quercus from different origins are selected to be subsequently roasted. We considered wood whose origin is traditionally used in cooperage, such as French and American oak. In Europe the main species of wood used in cooperage is Quercus petraea, being in France where greater volume of wood is produced for the cooper sector. As for American oak, the species that is widely used in cooperage is Quercus alba, because it has better qualities for cooper use in relation to other oak species present in America.
This article is organized as follows. After this introduction, where the research question and research objective is defined, in the second section the methodology used to perform the environmental impact analysis is presented; in the third section, the results of the environmental and economic analysis are exposed. Finally, in the fourth section, conclusions are presented, and future research is indicated.
Section snippets
Materials and methods
The materials and methods are divided into two sections, according to the intended purpose.
Analysis of the environmental impact
The Global Warming category (in kg CO2 eq./Liter of wine) is the one that has been analyzed, since it is the most used in the commercial area of products. The results obtained in the process are illustrated in Table 5, Table 6, Table 7, each one according to the alternative method used and the oak species analyzed. However, for reader interested in others categories, in supplementary material appears individual environmental impact evaluations by CML-IA baseline V3.04/EU25 methodology for
Conclusions
This article presents an LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) of the ageing of a liter of wine using oak barrels reused with alternative means such as chips, sticks and staves of the varieties Quercus alba or Quercus petraea.
This analysis of the processes involved shows that in all cases the environmental impact is lower than that generated by traditional ageing. The results indicate that the contribution of more oak implies greater impact and it is observed that, in general, the GW indicator is lower
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
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