Sparkling wines and atypical aging: investigating the risk of refermentation

Vine growth circumstances are becoming warmer and drier because of climate change. Higher temperatures advance ripening to a point in the season less conducive to the production of fine wine, while drought reduces yields (Van Leeuwen et al., 2019). Several wine-producing regions around the world have already recognized threats to their viticultural viability (Santos et al., 2020). An economical and cost-effective strategy for adaptation is the employment of late-ripening, drought-resistant plant material (varieties, clones, and rootstocks).

Bacterial antibiotic resistance is a major current health problem. Polyphenols have demonstrated antibacterial activity, and in this work we studied the effect of oenological polyphenols on the growth of intestinal multidrug-resistant strains of human and animal origin. Two Enterococcus faecium strains, resistant to vancomycin and other antibiotics, and four Escherichia coli strains, resistant to ampicillin and other antibiotics, were included in this study. All strains showed multidrug resistant phenotypes and genotypes to at least two antibiotic families.

Performing accurate vineyard yield estimation is of upmost importance as it provides important benefits to the whole vine and wine industry. Recently, image-analysis approaches have been explored to address this issue however this approach has as main challenge the bunch occlusion, mostly by vegetation but also by neighboring bunches. The present work aims at assessing the magnitude of bunch occlusion by neighboring bunches and to evaluate its dependency on a selection of vegetative and reproductive vine parameters assessed at fruiting zone. Forty vine segments (1 m) of two vineyard plots of the white cultivars ‘Alvarinho’ and ‘Arinto’ were assessed for vegetative and reproductive features at fruiting zone and imaged with a 2D camera.

Microorganism-based inoculants have been suggested as a viable solution to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change on viticulture. However, the actual effectiveness of these inoculants when applied under field conditions remains a challenge, and their effects on the existing soil microbiota are still uncertain. This study investigates the impact of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi inoculation on grapevine performance and microbiome. The study was conducted in a vineyard of Callet cultivar in Binissalem, Mallorca, Spain. Two different treatments were applied: control and inoculation with commercial mycorrhizae complex of Rhizoglomus irregulare applied to plants through irrigation.

Since the mid-1980s, several surveys have been carried out in La Rioja to search for populations of the sylvestris grapevine subspecies (Vitis vinifera L. subsp. sylvestris Gmelin). The banks of the Ebro River and its tributaries (Alhama, Cidacos, Leza, Iregua, Najerilla, Oja and Tirón rivers), as well as the surrounding vegetation of their valleys have been covered. So far, all the populations found are alluvial, forming part of the riparian vegetation of the Najerilla (the first reported population in La Rioja [1]), Iregua, and the vicinity of Oja valleys.