Development of bioprospecting tools for oenological applications

Managing extraction of tannins and green aroma compounds attributed from methoxypyrazines in winemaking is crucial for producing high quality Pinot noir wine. This study1 investigated the impact of leaf removal on concentrations of anthocyanins, tannins, and methoxypyrazines in Pinot noir grapes and resultant wines.

Climate transition with frequent heat waves and long drought periods threatens grapevine productivity and wine quality in the Mediterranean regions. Microorganisms are known to contribute to plant fitness and to stimulate plant resilience against biotic and abiotic factors.
In this work, it was assessed the impact of long-term drought on soil microbiome associated to grapevine in open field in Alentejo, renowned Portuguese wine region.
Soil and plant tissues of drought tolerant Syrah cultivar exposed to three irrigation levels (100%- FI, 50%-DI ETc; rain-fed–NI) for 5 years were sampled for two years (2022-2023). Metabarcoding analysis of soil bacteria (16S V4 rRNA) and fungi (ITS sub-region) were integrated with soil physiochemical properties and leaves´ physiological data. Pre-dawn leaf water potential and stomatal conductance confirmed the imposed drought scenarios. Even though, α- and β-diversity of prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbial communities differed more by season than water availability, samples clustered according to soil water content and pH (p<0.05). Fungal communities show higher differences in the structure across treatments than bacteria. In 2023, 16 bacterial against 61 fungal ASVs were significatively different in abundance between NI and FI. Beijerinckiaceae, Bradyrhizobiaceae (Alphaproteobacteria) and Nocardioidaceae, Streptomycetaceae (Actinobacteria) families resulted to be significatively more abundant in NI, while Ascomycota, Basidyomicota and Mortierellomycota are the most important fungal phyla in NI. With culturomics data, this study aims to gather insights into how soil microbiome is remodelled under drought and contribute to select bacterial and fungal taxa with potential to mitigate drought stress in vineyards.

Historically bounded by strict regulations with a focus on taxation since the 19th century, the japanese wine industry stands at a crossroads in the 21st century, necessitated by alignment with international standards and opening towards global markets.

In recent years, the application of plant protection unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in agricultural pest control has become more and more popular. However, there are few reports about the application of plant protection UAV for wine grapes, and there are no studies comparing the spraying effect of plant protection UAV with that of manual operation in vineyards. In this context, the objective of this study was to explore the feasibility of using plant protection UAV in vineyards instead of manual operations by evaluating the effectiveness of UAV spray in two common grape training systems in Northeast China.

One of the limitations of vineyards in warm areas is the loss of wine quality due to higher temperatures during the grape ripening period. In order to adapt the vineyards to these new climatic conditions, a possible solution is to delay the ripening process of the grapes towards periods with milder temperatures, by means of management practices and thus improve the quality of the fruit and the wine produced. The technique of severe shoot pruning (SSP) has proven useful in achieving this objective.