Des enjeux individuels à l’action collective

Climate change is increasing crop evapotranspiration and reducing water availability, especially in the Mediterranean area.

Vineyards from mild temperature, high humidity locations receive often treatments with fungicides to prevent damages produced by fungi responsible for mildium, oidium and botrytis infections. In addition, insecticides are also applied to vineyards to fight again pests, which affect directly, or indirectly (as vectors of different diseases), their productivity. A fraction of the above compounds reaches the soil of vineyards, either during application, or when released from the canopy of vines due to rain-wash-off. Thereafter, depending on soil conditions (pH, organic matter) and environmental variables (regimen of rain, slope of vineyards), they might persist in this compartment, be degraded and/or transferred to water masses, modifying the biodiversity of soils and/or affecting the quality of water reservoirs.

Aging process is an essential stage in the improvement of wine quality. This process is usually performed by contact with oak wood whose compounds are released and transferred to wine, acquiring typical aging bouquet. Although the use of oak chips is a practice generally accepted as alternative to barrels to shorten aging process, the application of emerging technologies is being unfolded to accelerate this stage.

Caffeic acid (CA) is an antioxidant of great importance in the food sector, such as wine, where it acts as a marker of wine ageing, as well as in the health sector due to its antioxidant properties and beneficial effects including the prevention of inflammation, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and diabetes.

Terroir is a holistic concept that relates to both environmental and cultural factors that together influence the grape growing to wine production continuum. The physical factors that influence the process include matching a given grape variety to its ideal climate along with optimum site characteristics of elevation, slope, aspect, and soil