AN AUTOMATIC CANOPY COOLING SYSTEM TO COPE WITH THE THERMAL-RADIATIVE STRESSES IN THE PIGNOLETTO WHITE GRAPE

Interspecific hybrid winegrapes are of growing interest in the context of climate change based on their disease resistance and cold hardiness. In addition to a need for increased understanding of their chemical composition, there is little empirical evidence on the consumer perception of non-vinifera wine. Phenolic compounds, and particularly color, play an important organoleptic and quality determination role in wine, but can vary significantly in interspecific hybrid wines compared to wines produced from Vitis vinifera cultivars [1, 2, 3]. Anecdotally, the variation in anthocyanin species, interactions, and concentrations in interspecific hybrids could result in a variance from“vinifera-like” wine color.

Oak tannin extracts are commonly used to improve wine properties. The main polyphenols found in oak wood extracts are ellagitannins¹ that release ellagic acid upon hydrolysis and comprise numerous structures². Moreover, oak tannin extracts contain other compounds giving a complex mixture. Consequently, the official OIV method based on gravimetric analysis of the tannin fraction adsorbed on polyvinylpolypyrrolidone is not sufficient to describe their composition and highlight their chemical diversity.

Champagne wines are produced via a two-step process: the first is an initial alcoholic fermentation of grape must that produces a still base wine, followed by a second fermentation in bottle – the prise de mousse – that produces the effervescence. This appellation produces non-vintage sparkling wines composed of still base wines assembled from different vintages, varieties, and regions. These base wines, or “reserve wines,” are typically conserved on their fine lies and used to compensate for quality variance between vintages (1). Continuously blending small amounts of these reserve wines into newer ones also facilitates preserving the producer’s “house style.”

Winemaking is influenced by micro-organisms, which are largely responsible for the quality of the product. In this context, Non-Saccharomyces and Saccharomyces species are of great importance not only because it influences the development of alcoholic fermentation (AF) but also on the achievement of malolactic fermentation (MLF). Among these yeasts, Torulaspora delbrueckii allows in sequential inoculation with strains of S. cerevisiae shorter MLF realizations [5] . Little information is available on the temporal effect of the presence of T. delbrueckii on (i) the evolution of AF and (ii) the MLF performance.

Aging red wines in oak barrels is an expensive and laborious process that can only be applied to wines with a certain added value. For this reason, the use of oak alternatives coupled with micro-oxygenation has progressively increased over recent years, because it can reproduce the processes taking place in the barrels more economically and quickly [1]. Several studies have explored how oak alternatives [2-5] can contribute to wine composition and quality but little is known about the influence of their thickness.