Oenology in the Kitchen: The Sensory Experience Offered by Culinary Dishes Cooked with Alcoholic Drinks, Grapes and Grape Leaves

Abstract

Abstract:A good pairing is based on the complementary role of wine on the four important factors of food: components, textures, flavors and colors. Common wine and food examples of food preparation with wine or vine products, such as grapes or vine leaves, exemplify numerous similarities and contrasting characteristics in those four parameters, which we can find in an enjoyable meal. The knowledge of the internal anatomy and composition of both grape berries, which includes the skin, the mesocarp and the endocarp, and vine leaf, which includes the vascular system, parenchymatous mesophyll and epidermis, is essential to know how to develop new, tastier and healthier dishes. An understanding of these ideas is important when defining gastronomic tourism strategies and even local restaurant concepts and ideas. The aim of this review is to provide some insights about the sensory experiences offered by culinary dishes cooked with grapes, vine leaves and wines and other alcoholic beverages like distilled spirits and liqueurs, bearing in mind that wine will be the drink of elation for accompanying such dishes.

Grape Infusions: The Flavor of Grapes and Health-Promoting Compounds in Your Tea Cup

“…Indeed, in addition to grape or wine, studies have shown that vine byproducts, such us jam, grape juice, jelly, molasses, raisins, and leaves, also have therapeutic properties [48]. In some European countries, Vitis vinifera leaves have traditionally been used as food [49,50], while in others they are considered a waste and thus discarded, rather than valorized [51].…”

Grape Infusions: Between Nutraceutical and Green Chemistry

“…However, they are not the only products. Thus, fresh grapes, raisins, juices, jellies, molasses, jam, and dishes cooked with vine leaves, are also foodstuffs with nutraceutical characteristics produced from the approximately 5000 cultivars of Vitis vinifera used in the grape industry [4,7,8]. As an example of benefits related to human health, several studies cited by Cosme et al [9] in grapes and their derivatives, where anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antimicrobial, antiviral, cardioprotective, neuroprotective, and hepatoprotective activities are attributed.…”

“…Exocarp-includes the cuticle (a waxy layer), epidermis, and hypodermis, consisting of 6 to 8 layers of cells smaller in size than the mesocarp cells [8]. However, between 5 to 18% of the fresh weight of the berry is attributed to the skin [14,15].…”

“…The epidermis is formed by tangentially elongated cells, one or two layers. The hypodermis can represent four to five layers of cells, in which the outermost layers of the cells have a rectangular shape, as opposed to the innermost layers in which the cells are polygonal [8,16].…”

UHPLC-HR-MS/MS-Guided Recovery of Bioactive Flavonol Compounds from Greco di Tufo Vine Leaves

“…Pre-bloom leaf removal, which consists of removing all or part of the leaves from the fruitful area in the period from spring to late season, is a practice commonly used with the aim of improving the quality of the harvest. On the other hand, countries such as Florida, Greece, and many Middle Eastern countries use the cultivation of vines also for the production of leaves used in kitchens for the preparation of typical dishes (e.g., the Arabian warak enab dish) in the knowledge that, like fruits, they contain numerous substances beneficial to humans such as organic acids, vitamins, and stilbenes [15]. The vine leaves are also rich in anthocyanins and tannins with vasoactive and vasoprotective properties and which have the ability to stimulate vascularization [16].…”