Water is the most abundant active compound in wine!

The terroir concept is presented as the basis of the A.O.C system, in the french vineyards. The “Anjou terroirs” programme aims at bringing the necessary scientific basisfor a rational and reasoned exploitation of the terroir. lt must lead to finalizing a lighter, more relevant integrated method of characterisation wich could be generally applied.

Climate change increasingly leads to altered growing conditions in viticulture, such as heat stress, drought or high infection pressure favoring pathogen infection.

Fermentation derived sulfidic off-odors due to hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and low molecular weight thiols are commonly encountered in wine production and removed by Cu(II) fining. However, the mechanism underlying Cu(II) fining remains poorly understood, and generally results in increased Cu concentration that lead to deleterious reactions in finished wine. The present study describes a mechanistic investigation of the iron and copper mediated reaction of H2S, cysteine, 3-sulfanylhexan-1-ol, and 6-sulfanylhexan-1-ol with oxygen. The concentrations of H2S, thiols, oxygen, and acetaldehyde were monitored over time. It was found that Cu(II) was rapidly reduced by both H2S and thiols to Cu(I).

The term “terroir”, originated in France, comprises the interaction of soil, climate, and topography with the vines of a specific variety and may be extended to the human impact due to the active choice of viticultural and oenological treatments.

In this study for the first time, eight natural stilbenes (trans-resveratrol, trans-piceid, cis-piceid, trans-astringin, trans-piceatannol, (+)-trans-s-viniferin, pallidol and hopeaphenol) isolated and purified from Vitis vinifera, were simultaneously separated and analysed within 5 mn by ultra high pressure liquid chromatography coupled with photodiode array detection.