«Aztec» – the new white table grape resistant variety

The interactions among aromatic compounds and proteins is an important issue for the quality of foods and beverages. In wine, the loss of flavor after vinification is associated to bentonite treatment and this effect can be the result of the removal of aroma compounds which are bound wine proteins. This phenomenon was recently demonstrated for long chain fatty acids and their ethyl esters (1). Since these latter compounds are spectroscopically silent, their association with proteins is not easy to measure.

Aims: Wine typicity is defined as a reflection of varietal origins, cultures and traditions of the wine. These aspects are many times also extremely important when considering a wines quality. However, as climate change occurs the typicity of wines may also change. With the long history of winemaking it is possible to define a wines typicity and how it has changed as climate alters. 

The Earth’s system is undergoing major changes through a wide range of spatial and temporal scales as a response to growing anthropogenic radiative forcing, which is pushing the whole system far beyond its natural variability. Sources of greenhouse gases largely exceed their sinks, thus leading to a strengthened greenhouse effect. More energy is thereby being supplied to the system, with inevitable shifts in climatic patterns and weather regimes. Over the last decades, these modifications have been manifested in the full statistical distributions of the atmospheric variables, with dramatic changes in the frequency and intensity of extremes. Natural hazards, such as severe droughts, floods, forest fires, or heatwaves, are being triggered by extreme atmospheric events worldwide, thus threatening human activities. Viticultculture is not only exposed to changing climates but is also highly vulnerable, as grapevine phenology and physiological development are strongly controlled by atmospheric conditions. Therefore, the assessment of climate change projections for a given region is critical for climate change adaptation and risk reduction in viticulture. By adopting timely and suitable measures, the future sustainability and resiliency of the sector can be fostered. Climate-grapevine chain modelling is an essential tool for better planning and management. However, the accuracy of the resulting projections is limited by many uncertainties that must be duly taken into account when transferring knowledge to stakeholders and decision-makers. Climate-smart viticulture will comprise ensembles of locally tuned strategies, envisioning both adaptation and mitigation, assisted by emerging technologies and decision-support systems.

Terroir encompasses many elements, including environment, grapes and human inputs that together contribute to the final wine quality of a certain wine growing area.

Climate is clearly one of the most important factors in the success of all agricultural systems, influencing whether a crop is suitable to a given region, largely controlling crop production and quality, and ultimately driving economic sustainability. Today many assessments of a region’s climate comes from a combination of station and spatial climate data analyses that facilitate the evaluation of the general suitability for viticulture and potential wine styles, allows for comparisons between wine regions, and offers growers a measure of assessing appropriate cultivars and sites.