Il piano regolatore delle città’ del vino: aspetti urbanistici, economici e turistici

The classification of enological tannins has gained importance following the OIV’s requirement to include their botanical origin on product labels (OIV-OENO624-2022).

Downy mildew, caused by Plasmopara viticola, is the most economically impactful disease affecting grapevines. This polycyclic pathogen triggers both primary and secondary infection cycles, resulting in significant yield losses when effective disease control measures are lacking. Over the winter, the pathogen survives by forming resting structures, the oospores, derived from sexual reproduction, which produce the inoculum for primary infections. To optimize grapevine downy mildew control and obtain the desired levels of production while minimizing chemical inputs, it is crucial to optimize the timeframe for fungicide application. Disease forecasting models are useful to identify the infection risk.

Correlations between vineyard site and wine have, historically, been limited due to lack of uniformity in scion and rootstock clone and lack of controlled pilot-scale winemaking conditions, particularly temperature

Malolactic fermentation (MLF) is a secondary step in the vinification process and it follows alcoholic fermentation (AF) which is predominantly carried out by Saccharomyces cerevisiae. These two processes result in the degradation of metabolites to produce secondary metabolites which also contribute to the final wine flavour and quality. AF results in the production of ethanol and carbon dioxide from sugars and MLF stems from the degradation of L-malic acid (a dicarboxylic acid) to L-lactic acid (a monocarboxylic acid). The latter process results in a smoother texture as the acidity of the wine is reduced by the process, it also adds to the flavour complexity of the wine.

The gustatory balance of dry wines is centered on three flavors, sourness, bitterness and sweetness. Even if certain compounds were already identified as contributing to sweetness, some taste modifications remain largely unexplained1,2. Some empirical observations combined with sensory analyzes have shown that an increase of wine sweetness occurs during post-fermentation maceration³. This step is a key stage of red winemaking during which the juice is left in contact with the marc, that contains the solid parts of the grape (seeds, skins and sometimes stems). This work aimed to identify a new taste-active compound that contributes to this gain of sweetness.