Linda Bisson defines thermovinication as: The holding of the must or intact berries at a high temperature for a short period of time, followed by rapid cooling. The process is not as rapid as thermoflash maceration, nor does it lead to the same amount of cell damage. Whole berries may be treated rather than must. In this case the surface of the berry reaches a high temperature, but the pulp does not. This provides the heat treatment exclusively to the skin cells rather than to the entire must.
The consequences of thermovinification sound beneficial:
Heat denaturation of enzymes (PPO)
Increases color extraction
Increases stability of "purple dimer"
Alters microbial flora
Easier to press leading to higher yield
Characteristic flavor changes
Fruit characters intense but less complex
Increase vegginess (may be too intense once fruit disappears)
Hydrolyze terpene glycosides to free terpenes
Aging/Chemical reactions occur
This lead me to Google wines made by thermovinification and I came across an article in Wines & Vines written by Tim Patterson in December 2010 called Thermovinification Heats Up. What surprised and kind of shocked me is that in this article, Tim Patterson writes that Chateau de Beaucastel uses thermovinification to control their brettanomyces problem. It was kind of a timely article for me to read because we had some friends over for dinner and had the 1995 Chateau de Beaucastel. I asked my friend who is a grape grower and a tasting judge if he could smell any brett on the wine and he said "no". I also did not smell brett and wondered if my memory of the Quality Control class was faulty. In Quality Control, one of the wines that was said to have brett was Chateau de Beaucastel. After reading the article on thermovinification, I'm wondering when Chateau de Beaucastel began their heat treatments.
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