Enology 1
A.Y. 2025/2026
Learning objectives
The course aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the scientific principles underpinning oenological production, building upon the essential biological, physical, and chemical fundamentals. Specifically, Oenology 1 provides the students with the knowledge for managing the transformation of grapes into wine within a winery setting.
Lectures will facilitate an understanding and management of both the machinery employed in the winemaking process and the associated physical, biological, and chemical phenomena. This will enable students to grasp the role of each individual winemaking step and its effect on the final product characteristics. Practical exercises will reinforce computational skills applied to solving problems related to mass, energy, and kinetic balances.
Furthermore, this course will serve as a prerequisite for comprehending the specific production techniques for achieving wines with optimal sensory characteristics, as explored in the subsequent Oenology 2 course.
Lectures will facilitate an understanding and management of both the machinery employed in the winemaking process and the associated physical, biological, and chemical phenomena. This will enable students to grasp the role of each individual winemaking step and its effect on the final product characteristics. Practical exercises will reinforce computational skills applied to solving problems related to mass, energy, and kinetic balances.
Furthermore, this course will serve as a prerequisite for comprehending the specific production techniques for achieving wines with optimal sensory characteristics, as explored in the subsequent Oenology 2 course.
Expected learning outcomes
Upon completion of the course, students will be required to demonstrate knowledge of: the principles underpinning the unit operations employed in the oenological sector; the schematic and operational aspects of key winemaking machinery; the composition of ripe and ripening grapes, as well as the role of their primary constituents in the final characteristics of wine. Furthermore, they will need to understand the effects of harvesting, grape reception, and cellar operations on the individual constituents of grapes, must, and wine, as well as on sensory properties.
Students will be able to: solve problems related to the unit operations covered; evaluate the application of unit operations at various stages of the winemaking process; competently participate in winemaking processes and make decisions consistent with the expected production outcome; and correctly size winery machinery, understanding its function and effects on the final product
They will also be capable of: correlating the compositional characteristics of grapes and harvesting methods with the oenological outcome; defining optimal fermentation and winemaking conditions to achieve the desired oenological result; conducting technical wine tasting to extrapolate descriptors and identify potential defects that may arise during the winemaking process and/or storage. Finally, they will be able to participate in the compulsory company internship, understanding assigned tasks, correctly performing and critically evaluating them, .
Students will possess proficiency in technical language, be able to communicate aspects of the winemaking process, and be capable of producing a technical report on the work undertaken during the winery internship for the purpose of their degree dissertation.
Students will be able to: solve problems related to the unit operations covered; evaluate the application of unit operations at various stages of the winemaking process; competently participate in winemaking processes and make decisions consistent with the expected production outcome; and correctly size winery machinery, understanding its function and effects on the final product
They will also be capable of: correlating the compositional characteristics of grapes and harvesting methods with the oenological outcome; defining optimal fermentation and winemaking conditions to achieve the desired oenological result; conducting technical wine tasting to extrapolate descriptors and identify potential defects that may arise during the winemaking process and/or storage. Finally, they will be able to participate in the compulsory company internship, understanding assigned tasks, correctly performing and critically evaluating them, .
Students will possess proficiency in technical language, be able to communicate aspects of the winemaking process, and be capable of producing a technical report on the work undertaken during the winery internship for the purpose of their degree dissertation.
Lesson period: year
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
year
Course syllabus
Lectures content of the first unit (Unit Operations)
- Definition of the wine production chain.
- Quantities. Unit of measurement, dimensions, dimensional analysis. Exercises.
- Mass balances: theory and exercises.
- Energy balances: theory and exercises.
- Heat transport by conduction and convection. Energy balances in heating and cooling operations. Steam table. Heat exchangers. Exercises.
- Evaporation. Types of evaporators. Mass and energy balances in evaporation. Heat economy and optimization. Exercises.
- Fluid mechanic. Hydrostatic pressure. Exercises.
- Fluid dynamic. Laminar flow and turbulent flow. Bernoulli equation and load losses. Fluid transport. Exercises.
- Settling: theory and equipment. Exercises.
- Centrifugation: theory and equipment. Exercises.
- Filtration: theory and equipment. Exercises.
- Distillation: theory and equipment. Examples of spirits.
Lectures content of the second unit (Principles anf fundamentals of wine making).
- Overview of red wine making process. Structure and composition of grape bunch and berry. Properties and oenological role of monosaccharides, organic acids, salts an anthocyanin.
- Grape flavanols and proanthocyanidines: distribution in grape, chemical structure, composition, size and properties. Meaning of tannin. Polysaccharides and cell wall structure. Interaction between tannin and polysaccharides.
- Evolution of sugars and acids over the ripening. Correlation between acidity and acid taste.
- Grape ripening and its effect on wine properties: evolution of cations, cell wall polysaccharides, native pectolytic enzymes, anthocyanin and proanthocyanidins from skin and seed.
- The concepts of ripeness (technological, phenolic and cellular). Methods for assessing the phenolic ripeness: spectrophotometric methods, colour indices, quantification of flavonoids.
- Comparison between handmade and mechanical harvest. Effect of the harvest on the grape properties. Role of the grape carrying system on the microbiological properties of grape must. Role and use of sulphite on the control of microorganisms.
- The cold and air-free transport of harvested grape. Sorting and rinsing grape systems. Role of destemming and machinery for achieving it. Grape crushing. Polyphenol oxidase enzymes: activity, distribution in the berry, substrate affinity, inhibition. Straight and indirect phenol oxidation and the role of sulphite.
- Ascorbate and glutathione as anti-oxidants. The managing of sulphite addition in grape must. Chaptalization: sucrose, concentrated musts and their production. Vacuum concentration. Reverse osmosis and spiral wound filters. Spray-dryer and RCM. Correction of grape must acidity: purposes and methods of pH and acidity correction. Use of acids and basic salts according to the law indications. The management of sulphite in grape must.
- The management of the alcoholic fermentation: role of yeast other than ethanol production, effect of temperature on Saccharomyces and autochthonous microflora, role of microbial count on the prevalence of Saccharomyces.
- Products of alcoholic fermentation: the CO2 and the health risk for the employees over the vinification. Fermentative self-heating and its effect on the cell membranes. The activity of ethanol an temperature: unsaturated membrane lipids and the role of sterols. The role of oxygen on the production of unsaturated lipids. Qualitative and quantitative aspects of grape must oxygenation.
- Yeast available nitrogen and its role on cell growth. Kinetics of nitrogen consumption and the related nutritional integration.
- The management of fermentation yeast inoculation and stuck fermentation.
- Overview of white wine making. The sensory properties of white wine. The management of harvest of for white wine making. Principles of grape pressing. Pneumatic membrane presses, vertical presses, the Coquard press pressing. The continuous presses: Archimedean's screw press, Branco press.
- Grape must clarification and its effect on the sensory properties of wine. Measuring system of must turbidity. The Stokes' law and the physical principles of the clarification methods. The role of hexogen pectolytic enzymes. Settling and floatation techniques. Lees filtration on vacuum drum filter.
- Cold skin maceration for white wine making. Calulation of heat balance for dry ice usage. Effect of cold skin maceration on terpene extraction.
- Physical-chemical phenomena involved with fermentative maceration. Co-polymerization phenomena of anthocyanin and proanthocyanidins: oxidative origin of ethanal. Fundamentals of phenolic evolution in red wine.
- Overview of the oxidative ageing of wine and the role of the anthocyanin to proanthocyanidins ratio. Kinetics of phenol extraction over the fermentative maceration. Role of maceration on the phenolic evolution of red wine.
- Extraction behaviour of grape skin and seed. Role of solid material, temperature, ethanol and mechanical force on maceration and phenol ectraction. Comparison between pumping-up and punching-down. Heat dissipation.
- Definition of the wine production chain.
- Quantities. Unit of measurement, dimensions, dimensional analysis. Exercises.
- Mass balances: theory and exercises.
- Energy balances: theory and exercises.
- Heat transport by conduction and convection. Energy balances in heating and cooling operations. Steam table. Heat exchangers. Exercises.
- Evaporation. Types of evaporators. Mass and energy balances in evaporation. Heat economy and optimization. Exercises.
- Fluid mechanic. Hydrostatic pressure. Exercises.
- Fluid dynamic. Laminar flow and turbulent flow. Bernoulli equation and load losses. Fluid transport. Exercises.
- Settling: theory and equipment. Exercises.
- Centrifugation: theory and equipment. Exercises.
- Filtration: theory and equipment. Exercises.
- Distillation: theory and equipment. Examples of spirits.
Lectures content of the second unit (Principles anf fundamentals of wine making).
- Overview of red wine making process. Structure and composition of grape bunch and berry. Properties and oenological role of monosaccharides, organic acids, salts an anthocyanin.
- Grape flavanols and proanthocyanidines: distribution in grape, chemical structure, composition, size and properties. Meaning of tannin. Polysaccharides and cell wall structure. Interaction between tannin and polysaccharides.
- Evolution of sugars and acids over the ripening. Correlation between acidity and acid taste.
- Grape ripening and its effect on wine properties: evolution of cations, cell wall polysaccharides, native pectolytic enzymes, anthocyanin and proanthocyanidins from skin and seed.
- The concepts of ripeness (technological, phenolic and cellular). Methods for assessing the phenolic ripeness: spectrophotometric methods, colour indices, quantification of flavonoids.
- Comparison between handmade and mechanical harvest. Effect of the harvest on the grape properties. Role of the grape carrying system on the microbiological properties of grape must. Role and use of sulphite on the control of microorganisms.
- The cold and air-free transport of harvested grape. Sorting and rinsing grape systems. Role of destemming and machinery for achieving it. Grape crushing. Polyphenol oxidase enzymes: activity, distribution in the berry, substrate affinity, inhibition. Straight and indirect phenol oxidation and the role of sulphite.
- Ascorbate and glutathione as anti-oxidants. The managing of sulphite addition in grape must. Chaptalization: sucrose, concentrated musts and their production. Vacuum concentration. Reverse osmosis and spiral wound filters. Spray-dryer and RCM. Correction of grape must acidity: purposes and methods of pH and acidity correction. Use of acids and basic salts according to the law indications. The management of sulphite in grape must.
- The management of the alcoholic fermentation: role of yeast other than ethanol production, effect of temperature on Saccharomyces and autochthonous microflora, role of microbial count on the prevalence of Saccharomyces.
- Products of alcoholic fermentation: the CO2 and the health risk for the employees over the vinification. Fermentative self-heating and its effect on the cell membranes. The activity of ethanol an temperature: unsaturated membrane lipids and the role of sterols. The role of oxygen on the production of unsaturated lipids. Qualitative and quantitative aspects of grape must oxygenation.
- Yeast available nitrogen and its role on cell growth. Kinetics of nitrogen consumption and the related nutritional integration.
- The management of fermentation yeast inoculation and stuck fermentation.
- Overview of white wine making. The sensory properties of white wine. The management of harvest of for white wine making. Principles of grape pressing. Pneumatic membrane presses, vertical presses, the Coquard press pressing. The continuous presses: Archimedean's screw press, Branco press.
- Grape must clarification and its effect on the sensory properties of wine. Measuring system of must turbidity. The Stokes' law and the physical principles of the clarification methods. The role of hexogen pectolytic enzymes. Settling and floatation techniques. Lees filtration on vacuum drum filter.
- Cold skin maceration for white wine making. Calulation of heat balance for dry ice usage. Effect of cold skin maceration on terpene extraction.
- Physical-chemical phenomena involved with fermentative maceration. Co-polymerization phenomena of anthocyanin and proanthocyanidins: oxidative origin of ethanal. Fundamentals of phenolic evolution in red wine.
- Overview of the oxidative ageing of wine and the role of the anthocyanin to proanthocyanidins ratio. Kinetics of phenol extraction over the fermentative maceration. Role of maceration on the phenolic evolution of red wine.
- Extraction behaviour of grape skin and seed. Role of solid material, temperature, ethanol and mechanical force on maceration and phenol ectraction. Comparison between pumping-up and punching-down. Heat dissipation.
Prerequisites for admission
The knowledge provided by the lectures needs a suitable background about a number of subjects of physics, yeast metabolism and wine chemistry. Therefore, the student must have passed the exams related to Physics and Wine Chemistry.
Teaching methods
The teaching methods consist of:
- Lectures: aimed to teach the theoretical knowledge to both understand and apply the winemaking practices shown during the course.
- Calculation exercises: aimed at getting confident in solving quantitative problems usually occurring along with the winemaking processes.
- Training sessions of technical wine tasting: aimed to achieve sensitivity and skills in evaluating visual, tasting, and olfactory properties of wine useful to assess wine under production.
- Educational visits at companies producing facilities and products for winemaking: they will allow students to deepen the technical topics of equipment and/or of enology products usually used in winemaking.
- Lectures: aimed to teach the theoretical knowledge to both understand and apply the winemaking practices shown during the course.
- Calculation exercises: aimed at getting confident in solving quantitative problems usually occurring along with the winemaking processes.
- Training sessions of technical wine tasting: aimed to achieve sensitivity and skills in evaluating visual, tasting, and olfactory properties of wine useful to assess wine under production.
- Educational visits at companies producing facilities and products for winemaking: they will allow students to deepen the technical topics of equipment and/or of enology products usually used in winemaking.
Teaching Resources
- PowerPoint slides shown during the lectures and available on the myAriel web portals along with the bibliographic references therein reported.
- Carlo Pompei. Operazioni unitarie della tecnologia alimentare. (2009) Casa Editrice Ambrosiana.
- David E. Block, Konrad V. Miller. Unit operations in winery, brewery, and distillery design. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003097495.
- Handbook of Oenology vol. 1 and 2. Ribereau Gayon et al. (2018). Ed. Edagricole-New Business Media. Edizione 4.
- Carlo Pompei. Operazioni unitarie della tecnologia alimentare. (2009) Casa Editrice Ambrosiana.
- David E. Block, Konrad V. Miller. Unit operations in winery, brewery, and distillery design. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003097495.
- Handbook of Oenology vol. 1 and 2. Ribereau Gayon et al. (2018). Ed. Edagricole-New Business Media. Edizione 4.
Assessment methods and Criteria
The examination is composed of two partial sections. The first one, concerning the unit operation, is written and made up of: i) a calculation trial dealing with the specific operations tackled during the course, ii) a description of the industrial processes learned, and iii) a schematic drawing of winery machines with the explanation of their working principle. The use of the pocket calculator is allowed during the 90-minute trial. The examination grade, as thirties, will be reported in the electronic bulletin board of myAriel web portal.
The second partial section, concerning the fundamentals of enology, is made up of 30-minute written calculations dealing with simple procedures possibly occurring in winery. In case of a positive result, it's readily followed by an oral trial starting with a careful description of one of the winery equipment. The following parameters will be considered as evaluation tools: contextualization and connection ability of enology knowledge learned in the course, correctness of answers, technical language abilities, and summarizing ability. The grade from this partial section, as thirties, is orally communicated at the end of the trial and can be increased up to 2/30 based on the result achieved with the test performed at the end of the exercise activities.
At the end of the technical wine-tasting activities, the students attending 2/3 of the exercise activities will be allowed to apply a 30-minute closed-ended test with ten questions to assess their knowledge.
The final overall grade, as thirties, is the weighted average of the results achieved with the partial scores.
Students with specific learning disabilities or other disabilities are requested to contact the teacher via email at least 15 days before the exam session to agree on any personal compensatory measure. In the email addressed to the teacher, the respective University services must be reported in CC: [email protected] (for students with LD) and [email protected] (for students with other disabilities).
The second partial section, concerning the fundamentals of enology, is made up of 30-minute written calculations dealing with simple procedures possibly occurring in winery. In case of a positive result, it's readily followed by an oral trial starting with a careful description of one of the winery equipment. The following parameters will be considered as evaluation tools: contextualization and connection ability of enology knowledge learned in the course, correctness of answers, technical language abilities, and summarizing ability. The grade from this partial section, as thirties, is orally communicated at the end of the trial and can be increased up to 2/30 based on the result achieved with the test performed at the end of the exercise activities.
At the end of the technical wine-tasting activities, the students attending 2/3 of the exercise activities will be allowed to apply a 30-minute closed-ended test with ten questions to assess their knowledge.
The final overall grade, as thirties, is the weighted average of the results achieved with the partial scores.
Students with specific learning disabilities or other disabilities are requested to contact the teacher via email at least 15 days before the exam session to agree on any personal compensatory measure. In the email addressed to the teacher, the respective University services must be reported in CC: [email protected] (for students with LD) and [email protected] (for students with other disabilities).
AGR/15 - FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - University credits: 10
Practicals: 32 hours
Lessons: 64 hours
Lessons: 64 hours
Professors:
Fracassetti Daniela, Tirelli Antonio Giovanni
Professor(s)
Reception:
By schedule
Office (Building 21040 - entrance on side Room 4 - I floor)