Identification of the agronomical and landscape potentialities in Côtes du Rhône area (France)

One of the intrinsic parts of a vineyard “terroir” is soil type and one of the characteristics of the soil is it’s colour. This can differ widely from bright white, as for some calcareous soils, to red, as in “terra rossa” soils, or black, as in slate soils.

Aim: Early leaf removal, generally applied before flowering, is mostly conceived as a technique to control grape yield and improve the health of grapes and focused on the final objective of increasing wine quality.

Smoke impact in wines is caused by a wide range of volatile phenols found in wildfire smoke. These compounds are absorbed and accumulate in berries, where they may also become glycosylated. Both volatile and glycosylated forms eventually end up in wine where they can cause off-flavors, described as “smoky”, “bacon”, “campfire” and “ashtray”, often long-lasting and lingering on the palate. In cases of large wildfire events, economic losses for all wine industry actors can be devastating.

AIM: Patterns in data obtained from wine chemical and sensory evaluations are difficult to infer using classical statistics.

Phenolic compounds are important quality indicators in red wine. A large number of polyphenols play an important role in wine development, contributing to the colour and the sensory perception of the wines. Anthocyanins are the pigments responsible for the colour in young red wines while tannins are the principal contributors to the bitterness and the astringency of the wines. Wine polyphenols are considered more complex molecules than grape phenolics, due to the enormous number of chemical reactions which take place during the entire winemaking process and storage, forming more stable compounds.