MONITOR SOME KEY PARAMETERS THROUGH THE IMPLEMENTATION OFCONTINUOUS CONTROL SYSTEMS OF THE MUST-WINE DURING MACERATION-FERMENTATION IN RED WINEMAKING TO MANAGE OPERATIONS IN “AUTOMATION”

The balance between the different flavours of a wine largely determines its perception and appreciation by the consumers. In white wines, sweetness and sourness are usually the two poles balancing the taste properties. The bitter flavour, on the other hand, is frequently associated with a loss of equilibrium and all white wines (dry and sweet, young and aged) are affected.
Several bitter compounds are already well-described in wines.

Non-Saccharomyces starter cultures became increasingly popular over the years because of their potential to produce more distinctive and unique wines. The major benefit of the use of Lachancea thermotolerans as a fermentation starter is its ability to produce relevant amounts of lactic acid and reduce alcoholic strength, making it valuable for mitigating negative impacts of climate change on grapes and wine quality. Besides, like any other non-Saccharomyces yeast, L. thermotolerans can significantly affect a whole range of other physico-chemical wine parameters.

The wine market interest for autochthonous varieties, particularly from less known wine regions, has significantly raised in the past few years. In that context, Slovenia, a small country from central Europe with a long winemaking tradition, is getting more and more attention, particularly through its range of unique regional varieties. Among them, Zelen, meaning “green” in Slovene, can only be found in the Vipava valley region, located on the western side of the country, near the border with Italy. When they are young, Zelen wines display very singular aromas reminiscent of rosemary, sage and white fruit. Despite its uniqueness, Zelen wine aromatic typicality is poorly documented in the literature.

Water deficit and salinity are increasingly affecting the viticulture and wine industry. These two stresses are intimately related; understanding the physiological and metabolic responses of grapevines to water deficit, salinity and combined stress is critical for developing strategies to mitigate the nega- tive impacts of these stresses on wine grape production. These strategies can include selecting more tolerant grapevine cultivars and graft combinations, improving irrigation management, and using soil amendments to reduce the effects of salinity. For this purpose, understanding the response of grape- vine metabolism to altered water balance and salinity is of pivotal importance.

The light exposure of wine can be detrimental as a relevant loss of aromas takes place [1] and light-induced reactions can occur. The latter involves riboflavin (RF), a photosensitive compound, that is fully reduced by acquiring two electrons. When the electron-donor is methionine, the light-struck taste (LST) can appear leading to cooked cabbage, onion and garlic odours-like [2]. The use of oenological tannins can limit the appearance of LST in both model wine [3] and white wine [4]. This research aimed to evaluate the impact of certain oenological tannins, selected in a previous study as the most effective against LST [5], in both white and rosé wines.