PRECISE AND SUSTAINABLE OENOLOGY THROUGH THE OPTIMIZED USE OF AD- JUVANTS: A BENTONITE-APPLIED MODEL OF STUDY TO EXPLOIT

Grape (Vitis vinifera) is one of the world’s oldest agricultural fruit crops, grown for wine, table grape, raisin, and other products. One of the factors that can cause a reduction in the grape growing area is temperature rise due to climate change. Elevated temperature causes changes in grapevine phenology and fruit chemical composition. Previous studies showed that grape varieties respond differently to a temperature shift of 1.5°C; few varieties had difficulties in the fruit development or could not reach the desired Brix level.

This study is aimed to develop a complete tool for the winemaker with, complete and targeted “winemaking recipes” that can be adapted to criteria set by the winemaker, such as: grape variety, grape health status, degree of ripening, desired wine, redox status throughout the alcoholic fermentation.
To get such aim, specific sets of experiments using red grape juices from different varieties (Nebbiolo, Barbera, Pinot noir, etc.) collected at different technological and phenolic maturity points, will be held with “automatized 4.0 tanks” equipped with sensors for measuring: redox potential, dissolved oxygen, relative density, temperature, and color in order to collect a sufficient amount of data preparatory to the creation of operating models in the most widely winemaking situations in which the automatized 4.0 tanks “will be able to independently respond” with the right corrective actions (opening/closing aeration valve, execution/block pumping overs , etc.) if the key parameters exceed the limits of the recommended ranges set in the selected recipe.

Nowadays, the use of food preservatives is controversial, SO2 being no exception. Microbial communities have been particularly studied during the prefermentary and fermentation stages in a context of without added SO2. However, microbial risks associated with SO2 reduction or absence, particularly during the wine aging process, have so far been little studied. The microbiological control of wine aging is a key issue for winemakers wishing to produce wines without added SO2. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the impact of different wine aging strategies according to the addition or not of SO2 on the microbiological population levels and diversity.

Wine tasting has been shown to provide emotions to tasters (Coste et al. 2018). How will expertise impact this emotional response? Burnham and Skilleås (2012) reported that the cultural, experiential, and aesthetic competencies characterize an expert in wine compared to a novice. Although there is no consensual definition of an aesthetic experience, Burnham and Skilleås (2012) reported that aesthetic appreciation is “disinterested, normative for others and communicable” in comparison to sensory pleasure.

The current energy crisis means that interest in agrophotovoltaics has increased significantly. The reason behind this is that the system aims to combine agricultural production with energy production. During the three-year period from 2020 to 2022, the effects of photovoltaic panels on the vine, the yield and the quality of the must were studied in Walenstadt in northern Switzerland, an area with a cool, humid climate. 65 Pinot noir vines were planted in the 160m2 study area. Because of the large edge effects, only 3 repetitions with 4 vines each could be created. A significantly lower leaf infestation by Plasmopara viticola was observed among the panels in each of the three years.