Unravelling the microbial community structure and aroma profile of Agiorgitiko wine under different inoculation schemes

The winegrowing sector consumes a lot of pesticides. Changes in vineyard are necessary in order to reduce or even stop using pesticides, and thus limit their harmful impacts on health and on environment. To answer these issues, the VITAE project (2021-2026) aims at designing pesticide free grapevine systems in France. For that, we take an interest in the vineyards using solutions to strongly reduce chemicals but also biopesticides. We assume that such vineyards exist and that they are implementing solutions that could inspire the design of free- pesticide system.

The AOC Gaillac area is divided into three main terroirs : « The left bank terraces », « The right bank coteaux » and
« The plateau Cordais ». This division is valid at a regional scale, but it suffers of a number of local-scale exceptions. This spatial variability of the pedologic-geologic characteristics at the plot scale has been derived mainly from the main late-Würmian solifluxion phase occurring at the transition between the peri-glacial climate and the Holocene temperate conditions (13,000-10,000 yrs BP).

The reproducibility of elemental profile in wines produced across multiple vintages has been previously reported using grapes from a single scion clone of Vitis vinifera L. cv. Pinot noir. The grapevines were grown on fourteen different vineyard sites, from Oregon to southern California in the U.S.A., which span distances from approximately hundreds of meters to 1450 km, while elevations range from near sea level to nearly 500 m. In addition, sensorial (i.e. aroma, taste, and mouthfeel) and chemical (i.e. polyphenolic and volatile) differences across the different vineyard sites have also been observed among these wines at two aging time points. While strong evidence exists to support that grapes grown in different regions can produce wines with unique chemical and sensorial profiles, even when a single clone is used, the understanding of growing site characteristics that result in this reproducible differentiation continues to emerge. One hypothesis is that the elemental profile that a vineyard site imparts to the grape berries and the resulting wine is an important contributor to this differentiation in chemistry and sensory of wines. For example, various classes of enzymes that catalyze the formation of key aroma compounds or their precursors require specific metals. In this work, we begin to report correlations between elemental and volatile aroma profiles of site-specific Pinot noir wines, made under standardized winemaking conditions, that have been previously shown to be distinguished separately by these chemical analyses.

Carbaryl is an acetylcholine esterase inhibitor-type insecticide used for pest control on grapevine. We repeatedly observed the occurrence of interveinal leaf necrosis following carbaryl spray application in a Vitis rupestris x Vitis riparia F1 hybrid progeny vineyard. Spray applications induced necrosis in this progeny under both Missouri and New York field conditions an approximate one-to-one sensitive-to-insensitive segregation ratio and with 42% concordance. Results of subsequent in vitro experiments established causality between carbaryl treatment and leaf necrosis and confirmed the pattern of segregation observed in the field. We consistently map this phenotype to a major QTL on chromosome 16 of the female parent V. rupestris ‘B38’ regardless of whether we used field or in vitro-generated phenotype data.

Free amino acid concentrations in must of 7 Vitis vinifera cultivars (Cabernet Franc, Syrah, Merlot, Montepulciano, Sangiovese, Cesanese d’Affile, Carmenere) grown in the Latium region (Italy) were monitored from 2003 to 2005. The cultivars were located in a homogeneous soil and climatic zone and with the same training system (Cordon Spur).