Pesticides are considered one of the main causes for arthropod decline in agriculture which in turn may affect ecosystem services such as natural pest control and soil fertility.

A trend to reduce chemical inputs in wines exists, especially sulfur dioxide (SO2). This additive is widely used due to its antioxidant, antiseptic and antioxidasic properties. During without sulfites vinification, bioprotection by adding yeast on harvest could be a sulfites alternative. With extension of this wine market, sensory impact linked to sulfites absence and/or sulfites alternative should be evaluated. That’s what this approach proposes to do, focusing on sensory characteristics of wines produced with or without SO2 addition during the winemaking process. METHODS: Wines were elaborated from Merlot grapes of two maturity levels according to three modalities: SO2, without SO2 and bioprotection on harvest (mix of Torulaspora delbrueckii and Metschnikowia pulcherrima). SO2 modality was sulfited throughout the winemaking and aging processes whether other modalities received any addition. After two years of aging, sensory studies were carried out with a specific panel for one month. First, descriptors were generated to differentiate the wines, then panelists were trained on these specific descriptors for five sessions and finally wines sensory profiles were elaborated

Phenolic compounds or polyphenols are the most abundant and ubiquitous secondary metabolites present in the plant kingdom with more than 8000 phenolic structures currently known. These compounds play an important role in plant growth and reproduction, providing protection against biotic and abiotic stress such as pathogen and insect attack, UV radiation and wounding. (poly)phenols are widely distributed in the human diet mainly in plant-derived food and beverages (fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, spices, tea and red wine).

Astringency is a crucial sensory attribute typically described as the drying and/or puckering sensation occurring after the consumption of tannin-rich foods and beverages. In this study, thirty-seven red wines from different varieties, origins and styles were evaluated, analyzing both chemical and sensory features. Principal Component Analysis was used for dimensionality-reduction and for correlating selected chemical parameters against astringency. The results showed that tannin content was the most important chemical parameter influencing overall astringency but more clearly the dryness sub-quality, followed by pH, titratable acidity and alcohol content.

“Flavescence dorée” (FD) is a grapevine quarantine disease associated with phytoplasmas and transmitted to healthy plants by insect vectors, mainly Scaphoideus titanus. Infected plants usually develop symptoms of stunted growth, unripe cane wood, leaf rolling, leaf yellowing or reddening, and shrivelled berries. Since plants can remain symptomless up to four years, they may act as reservoirs of FD contributing to the spread of the disease. So far, conventional management strategies rely mainly on the insecticide treatments, uprooting of infected plants and use of phytoplasma-free propagation material. However, these strategies are costly and could have undesirable environmental impacts. Thus, the development of sustainable and noninvasive approaches for early detection of FD and its management are of great importance to reduce disease spread and select the best cultural practices and treatments. The present study aimed to evaluate if multispectral/hyperspectral technologies can be used to detect FD before the appearance of the first symptoms and if infected grapevines display a spectral imaging fingerprint. To that end, physiological parameters (leaf area, chlorophyll content and photosynthetic rate) were collected in concomitance to the measurements of plant reflectance (using both a portable apparatus and a remote sensing drone). Measurements were performed in two leaves of 8 healthy and 8 FD-infected grapevines, at four timepoints: before the development of disease symptoms (21st June); and after symptoms appearance (ii) at veraison (2nd August); at post-veraison (11th September); and at harvest (25th September). At all timepoints, FD infected plants revealed a significant decrease in the studied physiological parameters, with a positive correlation with drone imaging data and portable apparatus analyses. Moreover, spectra of either drone imaging and portable apparatus showed clear differences between healthy and FD-infected grapevines, validating multispectral/ hyperspectral technology as a potential tool for the early detection of FD or other grapevine-associated diseases.