Concorrenza, qualità, zonazione. Una valutazione economica della relazione tra politiche, regole e strumenti di gestione dei prodotti del territorio

In recent years, vineyards in Australia, the US, Canada, Chile, South Africa and Europe have been exposed to smoke from wildfires. Wines made from smoke-affected grapes often exhibit unpleasant smoky, ashy characters, attributed to the presence of smoke-derived volatile compounds, including volatile phenols (which occur in free and glycosylated forms). Various strategies for remediation of smoke tainted wine have been evaluated. The most effective strategies involve the removal of smoke taint compounds via the addition of adsorbent materials such as activated carbon, which can either be added directly or used in combination with nanofiltration. However, these treatments often simultaneously remove wine constituents responsible for desirable aroma, flavour and colour attributes.

High quality wines start in the vineyard however little is known about the role vineyard management practices play in this quality outcome. Gold medals and well-known regionality increase consumer preference for purchasing a wine. An increase in the former will certainly also drive an increase in the latter and therefore practices in production that consistently lead to gold medal winning wines will improve both the marketability of the region and its products. It is argued that vinification is the main driver of wine quality and in fact, the presence of some oak compounds is a well-known consumer and expert mark of quality. However, only select wines are vinified in oak and therefore the original grape quality at the winery door must in fact drive all further downstream vinification decisions.

Clonal evaluation of winegrapes in California has not been extensive. Early selection work by Alley (1977), Olmo (unpublished data) and Goheen (personal communication) resulted in the current collection

Polyphenols are important compounds involved in many chemical and sensory wine features. In winemaking, adding oenological tannins claims to have positive impacts on wine stability, protection from oxidation and aroma persistence. Polyphenols are antioxidant compounds by either scavenging reactive oxygen and nitrogen species or chelating Fe2+ ions (1). However, as tannins oxidation leads to the formation of highly reactive species (i.e. ortho-quinones), it is still unclear if they have an effective role toward oxidation of wine aromas (2). In this work, we aim at studying the effect of two commercial tannins (proanthocyanidins, ellagitannins) on red wine flavour (mainly aroma) before and after air exposition.

It is important nowadays for wine producers to create a product that is an expression of their terroir, a concept including the interaction between a place (topography, climate, soil), the people (tradition, winemaking and viticultural practices) and the resulting product (grape varieties, wines) [1]. Nonetheless, wine’s typicity linked to those terroirs must be easily recognizable by consumers thanks to distinctive sensory characters and composition [2]. Among the compounds of interest, aromatic compounds and polyphenols play an important role in the quality of red wines, by impacting on the odour, color and astringency. To explore the influence of terroir factors, including climate, soil and human practices, on the chemical and sensory profile of wines, red wines from five terroirs of the Corbières appellation were subjected to a general study approach.