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

Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) is a compound that accumulate in wine for the early years of ageing 1. During this stage, which is often carried out in the bottle, the environmental conditions are conducive to the release of DMS from its precursors, already present in grapes2

The aim of this study was to evaluate the evolution of different chemical parameters and sensory impact on red wine during maturation in barrels or with new technologies

Over the last decade, the use of non-Saccharomyces yeasts in the winemaking process has been re-assessed and accepted by winemakers. These yeasts can be used to achieve specific objectives such as lowering the ethanol content, preventing wine spoilage and increasing the production of specific aroma compounds. Since these species are unable to complete alcoholic fermentation, strategies of co- and sequential inoculation of non-Saccharomyces and Saccharomyces cerevisiae have been developed. However, when mixed starter cultures are used, several parameters (e.g. strain yeast, inoculation timing and nutrient competitions) impact the growth of the individual yeasts, the fermentation kinetics and the metabolites/aroma production. In particular, competition for nitrogen compounds could have a major impact, potentially leading to sluggish fermentation when the yeast assimilable nitrogen (YAN) availability is low. Moreover, many aroma compounds produced by the yeasts are directly produced and influenced by nitrogen metabolism such as higher alcohols, acetate esters and ethyl esters which participate in the organoleptic complexity of wine.

Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GCxGC) has emerged as a powerful analytical technique for unraveling the volatile composition of complex matrices. This work will present three applications of GCxGC Tof-MS to the oenological field, aimed to identify novel biomarkers to be used in the quality control process of the wine industry. Comprehensive mapping of volatile compounds was conducted in a large sample of 70 sparkling wines, produced by 48 different wineries across 6 vintages and representative of the two main production areas for premium Italian sparkling wines (Franciacorta (FC) and Trentodoc (TN)), using HS-SPME followed by GCxGC-Tof-MS and multivariate analysis. Selection and identification of 196 putative biomarkers allowed clear separation of sparkling wines from FC and TN.

The ‘Erbaluce‘, a grapevine cultivar from which in the Canavese (Piedmont, Italy) different types of white DOC wines are obtained, is traditionally trained on a support structure commonly known as “pergola” having three to five long “cords” which consist of three cordons and canes interlaced together.