The weak role of organic mulches in shaping bacterial communities in grapevine

The ’Furmint’ is the most important grape variety in the Tokaj Wine Region, constituting around 65% of its vineyard area. Before the phylloxera disease many types were grown, but as selection started in the 20th century, its diversity dramatically narrowed. As a result, the cultivation of Furmint was based mainly on two heavy-cropping clones, T.85 and T.92 at the end of the ’80s. Aims of present clone research take into account that after solely quantity as target, quality emerged in the 1990’s and most recently, typicity appeared as more private estates began their own selection program.

Due to climate change, the occurrence of heatwaves and drought events is increasing, with significant impact on viticulture. Common ways to adapt viticulture to a changing climate include site selection, genotype selection, irrigation management and canopy management. The latter mentioned being for instance source-sink manipulations, such as leaf removal, with the aim to delay ripening.

In the production of sparkling wines, during the second fermentation, mannoproteins are released by yeast autolysis, which affect the quality of the wines. The effect of mannoproteins has been extensively studied, and may affect aroma and foam quality. However, there are no studies on the effect of other polysaccharides such as those from grapes. Considering the large production of waste from the wine industry, it was proposed to obtain polysaccharide-rich extracts from some of these by-products[1].

The European wine industry is facing multiple challenges derived from climate change and the pressure of different fungal diseases that are compromising the production of traditional varieties. A sustainable alternative maybe the adoption of resistant varieties.
In this study, we have evaluated the enological potential of 9 resistant varieties (5 white and 4 red varieties) in La Rioja. Microvinifications were carried out with three biological replications. Oenological parameters were very diverse with acid content varying from 2.6 g/L to 6.6 g/L.

Grapevine pruning is one of the most important practices in the vineyards. Winegrowers use it to provide the vines the shape needed, or to maintain it once achieved, and also to balance vegetative growth and fruit production. In the last decades, careless pruning has been blamed, among other factors, as responsible of the vineyard decay that is been observed even in young vines. However, to our knowledge, there is a lack of systematic research trying to elucidate to which extent the pruning method used affects plant development or its susceptibility to grapevine trunk diseases (GTD). Within this context, the aim of this work is to study the influence of different pruning method strategies on the development of field-planted young vines.