BrainStuff Classics: What Happens to Wine Grape Waste?

After winemakers extract grapes' juice, they're left with a lot of fruit skins and pulp. Learn what happens to all that goo in this classic episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-tech/sustainable/what-do-winemakers-do-with-grape-waste.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
brain Stuff Lauren Bogelbaum here with a classic episode from
our archives. Or as much as we can all do
at home and in our personal lives to support environmentally
friendly practices, often the real work comes at the industrial scale.

(00:22):
Today's question is a sticky one. What happens to the
grape waste produced during wine making? Hi, brain Stuff, Lauren
Bogelbaum Here. It takes about two point six pounds that's
one point two ms of grapes to produce a standard
to seven and fifty million liter bottle of wine, and
after the grapes are squeezed, about of that weight remains

(00:44):
in the form of grape skins, seeds, and stems. Pomis
or grape mark, as grape waste is called. Is something
that the global wine industry produces a lot of, close
to twelve million tons or eleven million metric tons every year.
So what do wineries do with all that gooey stuff?
You might think that disposing of vast quantities of it

(01:05):
would be a sticky problem, But even though the tasty
juice has been squeezed out, the material that's left behind
has a variety of uses, as A two five article
from Wine Maker Magazine notes the exact composition of palmice
depends upon what sort of wine has been made and
at what point the liquid was extracted. With white wine,
for example, the juice is removed prior to fermentation, so

(01:27):
the palmice is rich in sugar, nitrogen, and amino acids.
With red wine, in which the grapes are fermented along
with the juice before being pressed, there's less sugar left
and not as much of the tannins that give wine
it's bitter taste. But fermented palmice still contains a whole
lot of different components, including cellulose, tartaric acid, trace amounts
of other organic acids, sugars, tannins, plant pigments, and some

(01:50):
aromatic chemicals. One way to get rid of all of
that palmice is to use it to make other types
of alcoholic beverages. Palmis from white wine can be distilled
to make grappa, a traditional allion brandy. Palmas also traditionally
has been recycled as fertilizer or animal feed, but scientists
are increasingly interested in studying ways of extracting useful components
of great mark for applications such as fuel alcohol production

(02:13):
and biofuel energy production, as well as for the production
of biosurficants, which are used in environmental cleanups. Food scientists
have also realized that palmas contains a lot of healthy
stuff antioxidants, fiber, and compounds that help moderate blood sugar
and create a feeling of fullness, just to name a few.
These can be used to make other foods healthier. Palmas

(02:34):
has been used as an ingredient in bread, cereal, pasta, cheese,
ice cream, and has even been added to meat and seafood.
In Northern California Wine Country, some wineries use it to
make cookies, flour, and culinary oils. You can even find
teas made from wine grape skins if you're looking for
a different sort of sip. Today's episode is based on

(03:00):
the article what do Winemakers Do with grapewaist on how
stuff Works dot Com, written by Patrick Jake Tiger. Brain
Stuff is production of I heart Radio in partnership with
how stuff Works dot Com and is produced by Tyler Clang.
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