This initiative, financed by the Regional Government’s Competitiveness Innovation Fund, consists of creating wines with superior antioxidant functionality from polyphenol-rich extracts.

Viña Concha y Toro’s Center for Research and Innovation (CRI), together with Universidad de Talca, Universidad Católica del Maule, and Centro de Estudios en Alimentos Procesados (CEAP), launched the Transfer of Functional Wines with Maule Denomination of Origin Validation project, which consists of creating wines with superior antioxidant functionality based on the enrichment of traditional varietal wines with polyphenol-rich extracts.

This initiative, financed by the Innovation Fund for Competitiveness of the Regional Government of Maule, seeks to demonstrate that moderate consumption of these products could have an impact on certain parameters of oxidative stress at the blood plasma level, among other indicators.

“The project represents a clear example of the virtuosity of the academic-public-private alliance, since the research and development capabilities of universities and research centers are made available to the challenge of innovating products aligned with global trends in wellness and sustainability, focusing the FIC-GORE co-financing on these entities and thus overcoming the scientific-technological challenges that support the value proposition of a new category of wines with superior antioxidant functionality,” said Gerard Casaubon, Consumer Research and Product Innovation Leader at Viña Concha y Toro’s Center for Research and Innovation.

Felipe Laurie, Ph.D., from the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of the Universidad de Talca, commented, “Our participation envolved the use of two technologies. Ultrasound, which allows us to improve cellular rupture and achieve the extraction of some substances of interest from the plant material that could be transferred to the wine. The second part has to do with the valorization of pruning residues, with vine pruning shoots, which we seek to use as an oenological additive that could eventually contribute to the diversity and concentration of phenolic compounds in wines”.

During the launching, the objectives of the project and the progress of the research were presented. Authorities of the regional government and the participating institutions attended the event.