‘Pinot Precoce Noir’ (PPN) is an early ripening clone of ‘Pinot Noir’ (PN). The phenological differentiation is visible by an about two weeks earlier onset of veraison. It was found that the early veraison locus Ver1 on chromosome 16, previously identified in ‘Calardis Musqué’, originated from PPN. A highly correlated SSR marker, namely GF16-Ver1, was developed and tested for its ability to molecularly differentiate between PPN and PN as well as its potential to trace individual descendants.

The Muscadet area is situated in the southeast of Nantes, close to the Atlantic coast. It constitutes the western extension
of the French vineyard “Loire Valley”. The Muscadet is renowned and often spontaneously linked to a white wine.
However it remains misconceived as an ordinary wine, lacking authenticity.

Grapevine cultivars are vegetatively propagated to maintain their varietal attributes. However, spontaneous somatic variation emerges during prolonged periods of vegetative growth, providing an opportunity for the natural improvement of traditional grapevine cultivars. Notably, reduction in bunch compactness is a favorable trait in viticulture, offering advantages such as decreased susceptibility to bunch fungal diseases, and a more uniform ripening of berries. To unravel the genetic and developmental mechanisms behind bunch compactness variation, we examined a somatic variant of Tempranillo Tinto cultivar with loose bunches. We found that the mutant clone exhibits a ~50% reduction in pollen viability compared to typical Tempranillo clones.

Light-struck taste (LST) is a wine fault that can occur in white and sparkling wines when exposed to light. This defect is mainly associated to the formation of methanethiol and dimethyl disulfide due to light-induced reactions involving riboflavin (RF) and methionine [1]. The presence of RF in wine is mainly due to the metabolism of yeast [2] which fermenting activity can be favoured by using yeast derivative products (YDPs) as nutrients. Nonetheless, a previous study showed the addition of YDPs before the alcoholic fermentation (AF) led to higher concentrations of RF in wines [3]. Due to the widespread use of YDPs in the winemaking process, this study aimed to understand the possible relation between the content of RF in wine and the YDP adopted as nutrient for AF.

Sterols are a class of the eukaryotic lipidome that is essential for the maintenance of the cell membrane integrity and their good functionality (Daum et al., 1998).