Differentiating and grouping of oltrepo’ pavese environments according to grape maturation

The Fresh Mushroom Off-Flavor (FMOff) is a concerning undesirable aroma in wine specific of certain vintages, characterized by a typical button mushroom aroma. The appearance of this off-flavor is linked to the presence of certain fungus on the grape [1-3].

Drought stress is an increasingly prevalent environmental challenge with implications for grapevine physiology and productivity, as well as for the microbiomes associated with grapevine tissues.

SO2 play a major role in wine stability and evolution during its aging and storage. Winemaking without SO2 is a big challenge for the winemakers since the lack of SO2 affects directly the wine chemical evolution such as the aromas compounds as well as the phenolic compounds. During the red wine aging, phenolic compounds such as anthocyanin, responsible of the red wine colour, and tannins, responsible of the mouthfeel organoleptic properties of wine, evolved quickly from the winemaking process to aging [1]. A lot of new interaction and molecules occurred lead by oxygen[2] thus the lack of SO2 will induce wine properties changes. Nowadays, the phenolic composition of the wine without added SO2 have not been clearly reported.

Flavescence dorée (FD) is a very serious grapevine disease, classified as quarantine in europe, where it appeared in the middle of the last century. It is associated with the presence of phytoplasmas, transmitted in the vineyard by a leafhopper of american origin, scaphoideus titanus. FD causes severe wine production losses and often leads to plant death. There are currently no alternative solutions to insecticide treatments against the vector and uprooting diseased vines.

Lately several works highlighted the capacity of grape cell-wall material (CWM) to interact with proanthocyanidins (PA), indicating its potential use as fining agent for red wines.1–4 However, those studies were performed by using purified PAs and very high doses of CWM (almost ten-fold higher than those used in wine industry for other commercial fining agents). The present study focuses on the applicability of CWM from Cabernet sauvignon pomace as fining agent for red wines under real winery conditions. Grapes of cultivar Cabernet sauvignon were harvested at three different maturity levels
(unripe, mature, and overripe) and used for red winemaking. The pomace of such vinifications were used as source of CWM, and applied into red wines at two different concentrations: 0.2 g/L and 2.5 g/L.