IVAS 2022 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 IVAS 9 IVAS 2022 9 Monferace a new “old style” for Grignolino wine, an autochthonous Italian variety: unity in diversity

Monferace a new “old style” for Grignolino wine, an autochthonous Italian variety: unity in diversity

Abstract

Monferace project is born from an idea of 12 winegrowers willing to create a new “old style” Grignolino wine and inspired byancient winemaking techniques of this variety (1). Monferace wine is produced with 100% Grignolino grapes after 40 months of ageing, of which 24 in wooden barrels of different volumes. Grignolino is an autochthonous Italian variety cultivated in Piedmont (north-west Italy), recently indicated as a “nephew” of the famous Nebbiolo (2) and is used to produce three different DOC wines. The Monferace Grignolino is cultivated in the geographical area identified in the Aleramic Monferrato, defined by the Po and Tanaro rivers, in the heart of Piedmont and the produced wine is characterized by a high content of tannins, marked when young, that evolve over the years. Its color is generally slight ruby red and garnet red with orange highlights with ageing. Sensory analysis on 10 Monferace wines (2019 vintage) was assessed after about 11 months of ageing in wood. A trained panel carried out the wine sensory descriptive analysis (sensory profile) as previously described (3, 4), derived from the ISO norms. The wines were evaluated using ISO (3591-1977) approved glasses in an ISO (8589-2007) tasting room, served in a randomized order and identified with a three-digit code. The descriptors of the wines were defined during a preliminary tasting session. The quantitative measures of the chosen attributes were acquired using FIZZ (Biosystems, Couternon, France). The data were subjected to statistical analysis (5). 
All the wines were characterized by 16 attributes: color (garnet red, orange highlights), odor (rose, violet, nutmeg, pepper, blackberries, cherries, jam/marmalade, dry herbaceous, oak) and taste (acidity, bitterness, astringency, structure (body) and taste-olfactory persistence). Some attributes were not quantitative statistically different (ANOVA and Tukey test, p=95%): acidity, bitterness, astringency. 
All the other attributes discriminated the wines with different intensities, from 2 groups in the case of rose, nutmeg and dry herbaceous to 6 groups for oak. The panel identified one more specific odor attribute in wine 2 (vanilla) and wine 7 (smoked-roasting). 
Each wine had a specificity: wine 5 had the highest intensity for rose, wine 10 for fruity attributes (blackberries, cherries), wine 2 for oak together with vanilla, wine 6 for dry herbaceous, wine 7 for smoked-roasting, wine 3 for pepper. Wines 8 and 9 had the lower intensities for many attributes and the profile of wine 1 was very similar to the average profile of all the 10 wines. 
These preliminary results showed the unity of sensory attributes among wines with a specificity for each product and remarked that Monferace is a very interesting wine style for Grignolino variety. 

References

1-https://monferace.it/en/ (Accessed on 28th January 2022)
2-Raimondi, S., Tumino, G., Ruffa, P., Boccacci P., Gambino G. & Schneider A., 2020, DNA-based genealogy reconstruction of Nebbiolo, Barbera and other ancient grapevine cultivars from northwestern Italy. Sci Rep 10, 15782. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-72799-6 
3-Cravero MC, Bonello F Tsolakis C., Piano F., Borsa D., 2012, Comparison between Nero d’Avola wines produced with grapes grown in Sicily and Tuscany. Italian Journal of Food Science, XXIV, (4): 384-387. 
4-Bonello, F., Cravero, M.C., Asproudi, A. et al., 2021, Exploring the aromatic complexity of Sardinian red wines obtained from minor and rare varieties. Eur. Food Res. Technol., 247, 133–156. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00217-020-03613-w
5-XLSTAT® software, version Sensory, 2020, 2.2, Addinsoft, New York.

DOI:

Publication date: June 27, 2022

Issue: IVAS 2022

Type: Poster

Authors

Cravero Maria Carla1, Bonello Frederica1, Asproudi Andriani1, Lottero Maria Rosa1, Gianotti Silvia2, Ronco Mario2 and Petrozziello Maurizio1 

1CREA, Research Centre for Viticulture and Enology
2Associazione Monferace 

Contact the author

Keywords

sensory analysis, Grignolino, wood ageing, Monferace

Tags

IVAS 2022 | IVES Conference Series

Citation

Related articles…

Evaluation of climate change impacts at the Portuguese Dão terroir over the last decades: observed effects on bioclimatic indices and grapevine phenology

In the last decades the growers of the Portuguese Dão winegrowing region (center of Portugal) are experiencing changes in climate that are influencing either grape phenology berry health and ripening. Aiming to study the relationships between climate indices (CI), seasonal weather and grapevine phenology, in this work long-term climate and phenological data collected at the experimental vineyard of the Portuguese Dão research centre between 1958 and 2019 (61 years) for the red variety Touriga Nacional, was analyzed. The trends over time for the classical temperature-based indices (Growing Season Temperature – GST -, Growing Degree Days – GDD, Huglin Index – HI and Cool Night Index – CI) presented a significantly positive slope while the Dryness Index (DI) showed a negative trend over the last 61 years. Regarding grapevine phenology, an average advance of 4.5 days per decade in the harvest day was observed throughout the last 61 years. Consequently, the weather conditions during the ripening period have changed, showing an increasing trend over time in the average temperature (higher magnitude in the maximum than in the minimum temperature) and a decrease in the accumulated rainfall. A regression analysis showed that ~50% of harvest date variability over years was explained by the temperature-based indices variability. These observed effects of climate change on bioclimatic indices and corresponding anticipation of harvest date can still be considered advantageous for the Dão terroir as it allows to achieve an optimal berry ripening before the common equinox rains and, therefore, avoid the potential negative impacts of the rainfall on berry health and composition.

The plantation frame as a measure of adaptation to climate change

The mechanization of vineyard work originally led to a reduction in planting densities due to the lack of machinery adapted to the vineyard. The current availability of specific machinery makes it possible to establish higher planting densities. In this work, three planting densities (1.40×0.80 m, 1.80×1 m and 2.20×1.20 m, corresponding to 8928, 5555 and 3787 plants/ha respectively) were studied with four varieties autochthonous of Galicia (northwestern Spain): Albariño and Treixadura (white), Sousón and Mencía (red). The vines were trained in a vertical shoot positioning system using a single Royat cordon, and pruned to spurs with two buds each. Agronomic data (yield, pruning wood weight, Ravaz index) and oenological data in must were collected. The higher planting density (1.40×0.80 m) had no significant effect on grape yield per vine in white varieties, although production per hectare was much higher due to the greater number of plants. In red varieties, this planting density resulted in a significantly lower production per vine, compensated by the greater number of plants. In addition, it significantly reduced the Brix degree in the must of the Albariño, Treixadura and Sousón varieties, and increased the total acidity in the latter two and Mencía. It also caused an increase in extractable and total anthocyanins and IPT in red grapes. The effects of high planting density on grapes are of great interest for the adaptation of varieties in the context of climate change. In the future, it could be advisable to modify the limits imposed by the appellations of origin on the planting density of these varieties in order to obtain more balanced wines.

Petiole phosphorus concentration is controlled by the rootstock genetic background in grapevine: is this a key for understanding rootstock conferred vigour?

Grapevine, Vitis vinifera, requires grafting on Phylloxera tolerant rootstocks of American origin in most viticultural areas of the world. The most commonly used species in rootstock creation are V. berlandieri, V. riparia and V. rupestris. Rootstocks not only provide tolerance to Phylloxera but assure the supply of water and mineral nutrients to the scion. The objective of this work was to determine to what extent rootstocks of different parentages alter the mineral composition of petioles of grapevine.

The impact of decadal cold waves over Europe on future viticultural practices

A crucial issue associated with the long-term impact of climate change in viticulture concerns the capacity of resilience of the typical varieties currently cultivated in traditional areas. Indeed, regions that are currently characterized by optimal climatic conditions can cease to be so in the future. At the same time, new premium wine production regions may arise north of 50oN. Both these threats and opportunities are based on the assessment of a very likely gradual temperature increase along the 21st century, resulting from the ensemble mean of the state-of-the-art climate projections. Such an assessment is orienting decision-makers and stakeholders to rethink the grapevine cultivation zoning, prefiguring, for each variety, a shift at higher latitudes and/or at higher altitudes areas.

New insights on thiol precursors catabolism by yeast during wine fermentation: identification of the N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine conjugate

Understanding the catabolism of thiol precursors is essential for understanding the revelation of varietal thiols in wine. For many years, knowledge of these precursors has been limited to the S-conjugates of glutathione, cysteine (Cys3SH) and the dipeptides g-GluCys and CysGly, without being able to explain the full origin of 3-sulfanylhexan-1-ol (3SH) in wines