Toasted Vine-Shoots As An Alternative Enological Tool. Impact On The Sensory Profile Of Tempranillo Wines

The sensory properties of a wine depends on its colours, aromas and flavors. Regarding red wines, the gustatory part consists of the acid, bitter and sweet tastes

In California, little training in sprayer calibration or pesticide drift management is required to apply pesticides. Yet, there is a need to maximize pesticide efficacy and minimize drift. Therefore, our team is developing a training course on airblast application best practices. We distributed a survey to identify current practices and used importance-performance analysis to interpret responses to the importance of spray related topics and satisfaction with previous training.

The quality of wine is assessed, among other things, by its color, which is mainly due to its anthocyanin content. These pigments are polyphenols that give red, purple and blue hues depending on the relative proportion of anthocyanins produced by the action of flavonoid 3’5′ hydroxylase (delphinidin-3-glucoside, petunidin-3-glucoside, malvidin-3-glucoside) or flavonoid 3′ hydroxylase (cyanidin-3-glucoside, peonidin-3-glucoside). To study the genes involved in this biosynthetic pathway, we focused on Vitis vinifera cv. Tannat, known for producing wines with higher anthocyanin content and darker purple color compared to most red grape varieties. In this work, we have performed RNA-Seq analysis of skins during berry development, taking green and red berries at 50% veraison as separate samples, as an experimental strategy to focus on the differential expression of genes of interest.

The assessment of wine authenticity is of great importance for consumers, producers and regulatory agencies to guarantee the geographical origin of wines and grape variety as well. Since mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy with chemometrics represent a suitable tool to ascertain the wine composition, including features associated with the polyphenolic compounds, the aim of this study was to generate MIR spectra of red wines to be exploited for classification of red wines based on the relationship between grape variety and wine composition. Several multivariate data analyses were used, including Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Discriminant Analysis (DA), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Soft Intelligent Modelling of Class Analogy (SIMCA).

Understanding vineyard variability to target management strategies, apply inputs efficiently and deliver consistent grape quality to the winery is essential. However, despite inherent vineyard variability, the majority are managed as if they are uniform. VitiCanopy is a simple, grower-friendly tool for precision/digital viticulture that allows users to collect and interpret objective spatial information about vineyard performance. After four years of field and market research, an upgraded VitiCanopy has been created to achieve a more streamlined, technology-assisted vine monitoring tool that provides users with a set of superior new features, which could significantly improve the way users monitor their grapevines. These new features include:
• New user interface
• User authentication
• Batch analysis of multiple images
• Ease the learning curve through enhanced help features
• Reporting via the creation of colour maps that will allow users to assess the spatial differences in canopies within a vineyard.
Use-case examples are presented to demonstrate the quantification and mapping of vineyard variability through objective canopy measurements, ground-truthing of remotely sensed measurements, monitoring of crop conditions, implementation of disease and water management decisions as well as creating a history of each site to forecast quality. This intelligent tool allows users to manage grapevines and make informed management choices to achieve the desired production targets and remain profitable.