La pianificazione del paesaggio agrario vitivinicolo del basso Monferrato

Sterols are a fraction of the eukaryotic lipidome that is essential for the maintenance of the cell membrane integrity and their good functionality. During alcoholic fermentation, they ensure yeast growth, metabolism and viability, as well as resistance to osmotic stress and ethanol inhibition. Two sterol sources can support yeasts to adapt to fermentation stress conditions: ergosterol, produced by yeast in aerobic conditions, and phytosterols, plant sterols found in grape musts imported by yeasts in anaerobiosis. Little is known about the physiological impact of the assimilation of phytosterols in comparison to ergosterol and the influence of sterol type on fermentation kinetics parameters.

The relationship between grape production and leaf surface is a highly debated aspect in terms of the impact it may have on the composition and quality of grapes, especially in areas that focus their cultivation on high-quality wine. In many occasions, the limitation of the unitary production level in these areas is claimed to be the main factor for achieving high quality levels in the wine, forgetting the importance of the source-sink relationship and other environmental factors and management of the canopy. Taking this consideration into account, this work seeks to know the response of the vine as a whole, and the individual shoot as well, to the application of various alternatives of leaves and clusters removal, carried out in the phase immediately before veraison, in cv. Verdejo, in Spain.

Soils in vineyards are recognized as complex agrosystems whose characteristics reflect complex interactions between natural factors (lithology, climate, slope, biodiversity) and human activities. To date, most of the unknown lies in an incomplete understanding of soil ecosystems, and specifically in the microbial biodiversity even though soil microbiota is involved in many key functions, such as nutrient cycling and carbon sequestration. Soil biological properties are indicative of soil quality. Therefore, understanding how soil communities are related to soil ecosystem functioning is becoming an essential issue for soil strategy conservation. Here, we propose to assess the importance of land-cover history on the present-day microbiological and physico-chemical properties. The studied area was selected in the Burgundian vineyards (Pernand-Vergelesses, Burgundy, France) where land occupation has been reconstructed over the last 40 years. Soil samples were collected in five areas reflecting various land cover history (forest, vineyards, shifting from forest to vineyards). For each area, physico-chemical parameters (pH, C, N, P, grain size) were measured and DNA was extracted to characterize the abundance and diversity of microbial communities. The obtained results show significant differences in the five areas suggesting that present-day microbial molecular biomass and bacterial taxonomic is partly inherited from past land occupation. Over longer period of time, such study of land-uses legacies may help to better assess ecosystem recovery and the impact of management practices for a better soil quality and vineyards sustainability.

Red wines can undergo many undesirable changes during the winemaking process and storage, particularly oxidative degradation due to numerous atmospheric oxygen intakes. This spoilage can impact organoleptic properties and color stabilization but this impact depends on the wine composition. Phenolic compounds constitute primary targets to oxidation reactions

The ecological conditions (climatic factors and soil) during the whole year, and especially before flowering and during the time of flowering, have a great influence on the functional ability of pollen, the pollination, the fecundation and the yielding potential of the cultivars of grapevine.