Ozonated water applied in grapevines is a new agronomic practice that affects the chemical quality of wines

The application of ozonated water in vineyards is recently used to control vine diseases but there are not enough studies on its influence on wine quality. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect that different ozonated water treatments had on the chemical composition of Cabernet Sauvignon wines. For two consecutive harvest seasons, four types of treatments were used through different application strategies: irrigation (TI), endotherapy (TE), irrigation and spraying (TIS), and endotherapy and spraying (TES), the first two being less intensive and the two last more intensives. The treatments decreased the alcoholic degree (7.3%) and the contents of glycerol (11.5%) and ethyl acetate (26.8%). Wines from TI and TE had the lowest polyphenol content and varietal aroma potential index (IPAv). Moreover, TI produced wines with better volatile composition and TE wines had the highest total esters. On the other hand, TIS and TES increased the total polyphenolic compounds in wines by 26.2% and 6.5%, respectively. In short, treatments with ozonated water can be managed at the discretion of the winegrower to provide wines of differentiated chemical quality.