Winery wastewater is characterized by the presence of organic and inorganic contaminants with significant environmental impact if released without proper treatment. Thus, the application of sulphate radical-based advanced oxidation processes (SR-AOP) in winery wastewater treatment, with emphasis on the removal of organic matter, has been investigated. Several experiments were performed to assess the influence of temperature, UV-C radiation and transition metals in the thermal and photolytic/photocatalytic activation of sodium persulphate. COD removal was higher in the UV-C/S(2)O(8)(2-)process than in the heat/S2O82- using an initial COD concentration of 600 mg O-2 L-1. After a reaction time of 90 min (at pH = 7.0), using 15 mM of S2O82- driven by a UV-C lamp allowed achieving 59% of COD removal while the heat/S2O82- process attained a removal of only 41%. Afterwards, combining the thermal activation with transition metals, and using the optimal operational conditions [S2O82-]/[Cu2+] = 1, pH = 7.0 and 90min of reaction time), 61% of COD removal was obtained. Additional experiments with higher S2O82- concentrations and longer reaction time led to 96% and 71% of COD and TOC removal, respectively. To attain this target was used 25 mM of S2O82-, at pH 7.0 during a reaction time of 240 min. This removal rate proved to be higher than the achieved with hydroxyl radical-based advanced oxidation processes (HR-AOPs). Under the same optimal conditions, using 25 mM of H2O2 achieved 22% of COD removal and UV-C/Fe2+/H2O2 experiments obtained 48%. Overall, SR-AOP experiments, particularly UV-C assisted processes, have proven to be very effective in COD removal and can be seen as a promising technology to use in winery wastewater treatment. (C) 2018 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.