Chemical profiling and sensory analysis of wines from resistant hybrid grape cultivars vs conventional wines

Viticulture is globally important for socioeconomic and environmental reasons. The EU is globally leading grape and wine production, and Spain is among the top grape and wine producers. As climate change affects viticulture, mitigation and adaptation are crucial for protecting grape production. In this research work, data on viticultural management practices such as soil cultivation, irrigation, energy, machinery, plant protection and the use of fertilizers from vineyards located in Logroño (La Rioja) have been obtained.

In the context of climate change with increasing evaporative demand, understanding the water use behavior of different grapevine cultivars is of critical importance. Carbon isotope discrimination (δ13C) measurements in wine provide a precise and integrated assessment of the water status of the vines during the sugar accumulation period in grape berries. When collected over multiple vintages on different cultivars, δ13C measurements can also provide insights into the effects of genotype on water use efficiency.

The odors of wines are diverse, complex and dynamic and much research has been devoted to the understanding of their chemical bases. However, while the “basic” chemical part of the problem, namely the identity of the chemicals responsible for the different odor nuances, was satisfactorily solved years ago, there are some relevant questions precluding a clear understanding. These questions are related to the physicochemical interactions determining the effective volatilities of the odorants and, particularly, to the perceptual interactions between different odor molecules affecting in different ways to the final sensory outputs.

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.

Among the Moscato grapes, Moscato Giallo is a winegrape variety characterized by a high content of free and glycosylated monoterpenoids, which gives very aromatic wines. The aromatic bouquet of Moscato Giallo is strongly influenced by the high concentration of linalool, geraniol, linalool oxides, limonene, α-terpineol, citronellol, HO-trienol, HO-diols, 8-Hydroxylinalool, geranic acid and β-myrcene, that give citrus, rose, and peach notes.