Un exemple de valorisation d’une étude de terroir au sein d’une unité coopérative de production à Saint Hilaire d’Ozilhan (Gard) dans les cotes du Rhône

In a context of reducing herbicide use, the most part of French vineyards are developing permanent grass cover crops on inter-rows alleys, while under the row chemical weeding remains the general case. The setting up of a controlled grass cover crop under the vine row could be a complementary alternative to mechanical weeding – which one is very restrictive – interesting from a technical and economical point of view. The present study aimed at assessing agronomic impacts of grass cover crop under the row in different climatic conditions and production objectives.

Aging on lees (AOL) has been used for wine aging for a long time, thanks to its ability to modify wine composition, improving sensory characteristics and stability. However, the prolonged contact with fermentation lees may increase the risk of developing sensory defects, due to the growth of unwanted microorganisms. Furthermore, AOL requires a large amount of work to manage bâtonnage and for topping up the barrels, significantly increasing production costs.

The outer waxy layer of plant aerial structures, known as the cuticle, represents an important trait that can be targeted to increase plant tolerance against abiotic stresses exacerbated by environmental transition. The MIXTA transcription factor, member of the R2R3-MYB family, is known to affect conical shape of petal epidermal cells in Anthirrinum, cuticular thickness in tomato fruit and trichome formation and morphology in several crops. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the grapevine MIXTA homologue by phenotypic and molecular characterization of overexpressing and knock-out grapevine lines.

The use of pesticides for vine growing is responsible for generating an important volume of wastewater. In 2009, 13 processes were authorized for wastewater treatment but they are expensive and the toxicological impact of the secondary metabolites that are formed is not clearly established. Recently photodecomposition processes have been studied and proved an effectiveness to degrade pesticides and to modify their structures (Maheswari et al., 2010, Lassale et al., 2014). In this field, Pulsed Light (PL) seems to be an interesting and efficient process (Baranda et al., 2017). Therefore, the aim of this work was to investigate the PL technology as a new process for the degradation of pesticides.

Initiatives have been ongoing in recent years to safeguard biodiversity in the oenological sector via a process of enhancement of ancient varieties, under a pressure of a market strongly oriented towards production deriving from native vines of specific geographical zones. In that sense, Aosta Valley
(Italy) has raised the need to preserve and characterize its minority vine varieties which have the potentiality to give varietal wines. Fumin represents the 7% of the production of the region with 16 hectares of vineyards and 753 hectolitres of derived wine. Due to its large phenolic potential, strong astringency and deep colour, it has long been, and is still today, assembled or blended with other varieties as occurs, for example, for the Torrette.