Performance of Selected Uruguayan Native Yeasts for Tannat Wine Production at Pilot Scale

In temperate climates, such as in the North of Spain, the use of irrigation in the vineyard has not been required, due to the usual rainfall from June to August. In some large vineyards, irrigation management has been carried out, based on occasional support irrigation, or for the application of nutrients (fertigation). Currently it is necessary to implement decision support models to manage irrigation water in real time and avoid misuse of a scarce resource. Moreover, quality standards must be achieved, as in the previous rainfed viticulture.

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.

It is common to find tanks in the winery with wine below their capacity due to wine transfers between tanks of different capacities or the interruption of operations for periods of a few days. This situation implies the existence of an ullage space in the tank with prolonged contact with the wine causing its absorption/oxidation. Oxygen uptake from the air headspace over the wine due to differences in the partial pressure of O2 can be rapid, up to 1.5 mL of O2 per liter of wine in one hour and 100 cm2 of surface area1 and up to saturation after 4 hours.

‘Tempranillo Tinto’ is a black-berried Iberian cultivar that originated from a hybridization between cvs. ‘Benedicto’ and ‘Albillo Mayor’ [1]. Today, it is the third most widely grown wine grape cultivar worldwide with more than 200,000 hectares of vineyards mostly distributed along the Iberian Peninsula, where it is also known as ‘Cencibel’, ‘Tinta de Toro’, ‘Tinta Roriz’, and ‘Aragonez’, among other synonyms. Here, we quantified the intra-varietal genomic diversity in this cultivar through the study of 35 clones or ancient vines from seven different Iberian wine-making regions. A comparative analysis after Illumina whole-genome sequencing revealed the presence of 1,120 clonal single nucleotide variants (SNVs).

Pomace is one of the main residues generated by the wine industry and represents an environmental problem. Currently, there is a growing interest in the revaluation of these products because different bioactive compounds can be obtained from them, such as polyphenols, grape seed oils and polysaccharides. Red grape pomace can be an important source of polysaccharides, but they are currently little studied and even less with viable and environmental extraction processes (green extraction), such as flash extraction. The residual amount of the fraction rich in pectin (residual pulp) and component rich in hemicellulose in the pomace and the strength of association of the pectin with the cellulose-xyloglucan network depend on the degree of extractability of the polysaccharides in red winemaking and on the winemaking conditions.