Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hi brain
Speaker 1: Stuff Lauren bogelbaumb Here, it takes about two point six
Speaker 1: pounds that's one point two ms of grapes to produce
Speaker 1: a standard to seven and fifty million liter bottle of wine,
Speaker 1: and after the grapes are squeezed, about twenty of that
Speaker 1: weight remains in the form of grape skins, seeds, and stems.
Speaker 1: Pomis or grape mark, as grape waste is called, is
Speaker 1: something that the global wine industry produces a lot of,
Speaker 1: close to twelve million tons or eleven million metric tons
Speaker 1: every year. So what do wineries do with all that
Speaker 1: gooey stuff. You might think that disposing of vast quantities
Speaker 1: of it would be a sticky problem, but even though
Speaker 1: the tasty juice has been squeezed out, the material that's
Speaker 1: left behind has a variety of uses. As a two
Speaker 1: article from Wine Maker Magazine notes, the exact composition of
Speaker 1: palmis depends upon what sort of wine has been made
Speaker 1: and at what point the liquid was extracted with white in.
Speaker 1: For example, the juice is removed prior to fermentation, so
Speaker 1: the palmice is rich in sugar, nitrogen, and amino acids.
Speaker 1: With red wine, in which the grapes are fermented along
Speaker 1: with the juice before being pressed, there's less sugar left
Speaker 1: and not as much of the tannins that give wine
Speaker 1: it's bitter taste, but fermented palmice still contains a whole
Speaker 1: lot of different components, including cellulose, tartaric acid, trace amounts
Speaker 1: of other organic acids, sugars, tannins, plant pigments, and some
Speaker 1: aromatic chemicals. One way to get rid of all of
Speaker 1: that palmase is to use it to make other types
Speaker 1: of alcoholic beverages. Palmis from white wine can be distilled
Speaker 1: to make grappa, a traditional Italian brandy. Palmas also traditionally
Speaker 1: has been recycled as fertilizer or animal feed, but scientists
Speaker 1: are increasingly interested in studying ways of extracting useful components
Speaker 1: of grape mark for applications such as fuel alcohol production
Speaker 1: and biofuel energy production, as well as for the production
Speaker 1: of biosurficants, which are used in environmental cleanups. Food scientists
Speaker 1: have also realized that palmase contains a lot of healthy
Speaker 1: stuff of antioxidants, fiber, and compounds that help moderate blood
Speaker 1: sugar and create a feeling of fullness, just to name
Speaker 1: a few. These can be used to make other foods healthier.
Speaker 1: Palmas has been used as an ingredient in bread, cereal, pasta, cheese,
Speaker 1: ice cream, and has even been added to meat and seafood.
Speaker 1: In Northern California wine Country, some wineries use it to
Speaker 1: make cookies, flour, and culinary oils. You can even find
Speaker 1: teas made from wine grape skins if you're looking for
Speaker 1: a different sort of sip. Today's episode was written by
Speaker 1: Patrick J. Keiger and produced by Tyler Clang. For more
Speaker 1: on this and lots of other waste free topics, visit
Speaker 1: our home planet, how stuff works dot com