In this work, phenol-rich microparticles loaded with grape pomace extract were prepared by the ionic gelation method using sodium alginate (3% w/v) and chitosan (0.5%, 1.0%, or 1.5% w/v) as coatings and 0.25 M CaCl2 as curing agent. The influence of the two methods of adding chitosan (A - chitosan was mixed with CaCl2 and B - alginate hydrogels were immersed in chitosan) on the encapsulation efficiency (EE) and in vitro release of phenolic compounds (TPC) from alginate/chitosan microparticles was studied. The hydrogels obtained were freeze-dried, and the dried microparticles (MP) were then used to study the release of TPC during simulated enzyme-free digestion in vitro in the mouth, stomach, and intestine for 243 min. In the A method, the highest EE (75.81%) was obtained when 1.5% chitosan was used and the lowest when the chitosan concentration was 0.5%. In the B method, the reverse order was observed, with the highest EE (57.52%) obtained with 0.5% chitosan and the lowest with chitosan concentration of 1.5%. The results of simulated digestion showed a faster release of TPC when the microparticles were prepared by adding chitosan to CaCl2 than when the immersion method was used. In general, the most TPC was released in the gastric phase (92.23 – 99.01% for the A method and 84.85 – 93.17% for the B method), while the cumulative TPC content after 243 min of digestion was in the range of 41.59 ‒ 44.58 mgTPC/gMP for the A method and 34.08 – 36.03 mgTPC/gMP for the B method).