The interplay between grape ripening and weather anomalies – A modeling exercise

Climate change and reduction of inputs are two major challenges for viticulture and oenology. With increasing temperature, wines become less acid and microbiologically less stable (1).

Today in the wine industry, a lot of alternatives are available for reducing phytosanitary inputs. Among these, prophylaxis, the use of biocontrol products and the deployment of pathogen-resistant vines are the most promising. eugenol (2-methoxy-4-(2-propenyl)-phenol), a molecule with recognised antifungal properties, can contribute to the last two alternatives. This molecule has been identified as an endogenous compound in the baco blanc hybrid variety used in armagnac pdo, which is at least tolerant to botrytis cinerea.

While the trend in winemaking is toward reducing the inputs and especially sulphites, the development of While the trend in winemaking is toward reducing the inputs

La découverte d’une vigne gallo-romaine en plaine à Gevrey-Chambertin (Côte-d’Or) constitue un point important pour la compréhension de la construction des terroirs viticoles de Bourgogne. Sa situation en plaine constitue pour nous le point de départ d’une large réflexion sur la mise en place du modèle de viticulture de coteau qui prévaut en Bourgogne et sur les facteurs de ce changement de norme de qualité viticole. Les sources mobilisées pour cette approche interdisciplinaire et diachronique sont géomorphologiques, archéologiques et textuelles.

With the aim of producing premium wines, it is admitted that moderate environmental stresses may contribute to the accumulation of compounds of interest in grapes. However the ongoing climate change, with the appearance of more limiting conditions of production is a major concern for the wine industry economic. Will it be possible to maintain the vineyards in place, to preserve the current grape varieties and how should we anticipate the adaptation measures to ensure the sustainability of vineyards? In this context, the question of the responses and adaptation of grapevine to abiotic stresses becomes a major scientific issue to tackle. An abiotic stress can be defined as the effect of a specific factor of the physico-chemical environment of the plants (temperature, availability of water and minerals, light, etc.) which reduces growth, and for a crop such as the vine, the yield, the composition of the fruits and the sustainability of the plants. Water stress is in many minds, but a systemic vision is essential for at least two reasons. The first reason is that in natural environments, a single factor is rarely limiting, and plants have to deal with a combination of constraints, as for example heat and drought, both in time and at a given time. The second reason is that plants, including grapevine, have central mechanisms of stress responses, as redox regulatory pathways, that play an important role in adaptation and survival. Here we will review the most recent studies dealing with this issue to provide a better understanding of the grapevine responses to a combination of environmental constraints and of the underlying regulatory pathways, which may be very helpful to design more adapted solutions to cope with climate change.