Effect of one-year cover crop and arbuscular mycorrhiza inocululation in the microbial soil community of a vineyard

In viticulture, terroir is a key concept that refers to an area and thus possesses a geographical dimension. Hence, zoning of viticultural terroir is an important issue

“Pinking” is a term used to define an abnormal pink coloration assumed by white wines in certain cases. Despite the are many hypotheses about the causes of this phenomenon, pinking still represents an issue for the wine industry. In the absence of reliable preventive strategies, wineries often rely on treatments such as charcoal fining, which is also negatively impacting wine aroma. This study aims at evaluating the potential of different fining agents based on animal or vegetal proteins to prevent wine pinking when applied at the level of must clarification. The work was carried out on Lugana wines, which is well-recognised as sensible to pinking problems. METHODS: Two experimental Lugana musts were obtained by applying a standard winemaking protocol and were then clarified with different commercial preparations based on vegetal proteins or casein, alone or in combination with PVPP. A control only using pectolytic enzyme was also prepared. Finings were carried out at 4°C for 16h, and the clear must (200 NTU) was then fermented in controlled conditions.

The use of elicitors to promote the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in grapes has been tackled in several reports, however its study linked to nanotechnology is less developed.

Expression of sensory attributes that reflect the varietal and geographical origin of wines (aka terroir) is central to perceived wine quality and reputation of wine producing regions.

We tried to give a part of the answer to this question by monitoring glutathione during winemaking and storage. The novelty of our approach is to quantify simultaneously the three known forms of glutathione: free glutathione (GSH), oxidized form (GSSG) and glutathione-S-sulfonate (GSSO3H).