Impact of electrolyzed water applied as an alternative treatment in vineyard on grape and wine quality.

The main issues in viticulture are to highly decrease the use of phytochemicals. Electrolyzed water (EW) is one of the possiblealternative when illness pressure is not too high. The objective of that work was to characterize the impacts on grape and wine qualitywhen using EW compared to those obtained from organic and conventional production. Trials were performed in real vintner parcelsof Cabernet franc and Chenin blanc in the Loire Valley. The control treatment (VITI) was the usual practices of the vintners and the EWtreatment was 50% of VITI treatment and 50% of EW for logistic reasons. Grapes were harvested at the date selected by the vintners.Microvinifi cations (about 40L each) were realized with a standardized. Grapes and wines were analyzed with usual analyses inaddition with hyperspectral imaging for grapes and TCA analyses for wines. The results showed that the total polyphenol content andin particular the total anthocyanin content were higher when the grapes were treated by the electrolyzed water. The most importantchange in the composition was linked to the concentration of peonidine-3-O-glucoside. The oenological ripeness was slightly or notmodifi ed depending on the vintage. If the diff erences between the modalities were not easy to comprehend with classical methods,hyperspectral imaging and Raman spectroscopy allowed a very good classifi cation of berries depending on the vineyard treatments.However, after vinifi cation, diff erences observed in grapes about sugar content were also found in wine just after the alcoholicfermentation. But diff erences were reduced in wines after malolactic fermentation or after bottling suggesting that wine quality wasnot really impacted by the EW treatment. Moreover, analyses showed that the use of electrolyzed water in the vineyard did not add arisk of developing trichloroanisoles in wine during fermentation. Thus, the use of electrolyzed water is possible in light of impact ofgrape and wine quality. Its use has now to be validated by its effi cency at a moderate level of illness pressure in vineyards.