Predatory Arthropods associated with potential locally-adapted native insectary plants for Australian vineyards

The production of grated vines is a complex process from grafting to final sorting in nurseries. To reach the market, grafted grapevines must meet three criteria by law in France: resistance to a manual graft union test (named thumb test), a minimum number of three roots and a woody shoot of at least 2 cm long.

Grapevine resilience to climate change has become one of the most pressing topics in the Viticulture & Enology field. Vineyard health demands understanding the mechanisms that explain the direct and indirect interactions between environmental stressors. The current climate change scenario, where drought and heat-wave are more frequent and intense, strongly demands improving our knowledge of environmental stresses. During a heatwave, the ambient temperature rises above the plant’s average tolerance threshold and, generally, above 35 oC plant’s adaptation to heat stress is activated.

Wine research in the past years has mainly been focused on laboratory scale due to the possibility of controlling winemaking variables. Conversely, studies on wine quality in relation to the winemaking variables at the winery scale may be able to better account for the actual challenges encountered during wine production. Winemaking problems are recently arising from progressive changes in environmental conditions in relation to the terroir. It is important to realize that each wine region may have specific winemaking protocols and that winemakers often base their decisions on subjective, emotional, and empirical opinions. Due to all the above-mentioned issues, taking the correct decision in winemaking to achieve the desired goals may become even more challenging.

Aging on lees (AOL) is a powerful technique to protect varietal aroma and color. Simultaneously, helps to soften tannins and increase and improve wine body and structure. AOL is complementary to barrel aging modulating the wood impact and protecting wine from oxidative conditions.

In the past, the contribution of non-Saccharomyces yeasts in winemaking has always been considered negative for their limited enological attitude if compared with Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In recent decades there has been a reevaluation of the role of non-Saccharomyces wine yeasts especially when used in combination and in support with S. cerevisiae (mixed fermentation). In this regard, selected non-Saccharomyces yeasts could be profitable used to give distinctive features, to enhance flavor and aroma complexity and to reduce the ethanol content of wines. Further emerging trends in the use of these yeasts are related to their role as bioprotectants and producers of health promoters compounds.