Chemical and chromatic composition of wines produced with reduced cap management at industrial scale on two clones of Pinot noir from California

Two contrasting cap management regimes were applied during the winemaking of two clones of Pinot noir (UCD 23 and 828). Control wines received regular punch-downs throughout alcoholic fermentation (AF), whereas minimal intervention (MI) wines did not receive punch-downs during active AF but only after completion of AF. The basic chemical composition of the wines, including alcohol and acetic acid, flavonol and polymeric pigment formation and chromatic characteristics were not affected by the cap management protocol. Differences that were small in magnitude were observed only for anthocyanins (favoring Control wines) and tannins (favoring MI wines) throughout winemaking but not after bottle aging. Although current results may be confined to fermentors of moderate size (1.5 tons) and appropriate geometry, MI protocols seem to result in comparable phenolic and chromatic composition than wines produced with traditional cap management protocols.