What does wine Longevity mean?
The longevity – or ageing potential – of a wine can be defined as its predisposition to maintaining its original sensory and colour characteristics over time, contributing to the determination of its value. A wine is valuable if it tastes good and stays like this over time.
The longevity of its wines, from both the Veneto and Puglia, is an objective the Tinazzi family has been pursuing for years.
An important project was started in September 2023 which we called “Progetto Longevity” – it will last for several years and involves two leading figures from the Italian wine sector, i.e. Mr Fulvio Mattivi and oenologist Gianni Gasperi.
FULVIO MATTIVI
Fulvio Mattivi is currently a research collaborator at the Centro Agricoltura Alimentazione e Ambiente (Centre for Agriculture, Food and the Enviroment) at the University of Trento. He is also a member of the Edmund Mach foundation (FEM). His leading research activities focus on the chemistry of food, as he mainly investigates the various classes of polyphenols from an analytic, technological and nutritional point of view. More recently, his research has focused on biochemistry and food, and he is currently coordinating studies based on metabolomics applied to wine and food chemistry, plant science and human nutrition.
GIANNI GASPERI
Gianno Gasperi holds a diploma in oenology from Instituto di San Michele a/A and he worked as an oenologist in Tuscany until 1991. After returning to Trentino, he continued his work as an oenologist, again as an employee.
He was the President of Associazione Enologi Trentini for two mandates (10 years) and also the President of the wine tasting commissions of local DOC wines in the Chamber of Commerce of Trento.
In 2007, he started freelancing and he currently works as a consultant with around twenty companies from various parts of Italy.
The research project involves various stages from the vineyard to the cellar. Tinazzi oenologists and researchers work together to identify and exalt the characteristics of the grapes that help wines acquire a higher longevity.
The study focuses on Primitivo grapes in Puglia and Corvina grapes in Veneto.
The project started in September with the zoning of two vineyards (in Bardolino and Faggiano) and the sampling of their grapes.
Grape samples were subjected to the method assessing the phenol potential developed by Mr. Mattivi himself in collaboration with the Food chemistry operating unit of the Agricultural School of San Michele dell’Adige.
Knowledge of the potential expressed by grapes on a polyphenol level favours a management of maceration according to the method and times that help exalt the characteristics of the raw material according to the oenological objective set.
The two researchers will accompany the Tinazzi onelogy team in Verona and tht of Cantine San Giorgio in Taranto to select the grapes and extract the natural antioxidants from the pips.
This first phase of the Longevity project will be followed by work phases on musts and wines.
We will follow every step of the study and keep you updated on the results, stay tuned!