Macrowine 2021
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 An excessive leaf-fruit ratio reduces the yeast assimilable nitrogen in the must

An excessive leaf-fruit ratio reduces the yeast assimilable nitrogen in the must

Abstract

Yeast assimilable nitrogen (YAN) in the grape must is a key variable for wine quality as a source of aroma precursors. In a situation of YAN deficiency, a foliar urea application upon the vine at veraison enhances YAN concentration and facilitates must fermentation. In 2013, Agroscope investigated the impact of leaf-fruit ratio on the nitrogen (N) assimilation and partitioning in grapevine Vitis vinifera cv. Chasselas following foliar-urea application with the aim of improving its efficiency on the YAN concentration. Two factors, canopy height with two levels (90 and 140 cm), and crop load with two levels (§§5 and 10 clusters per vine), were combined in a split plot trial (5 vines per treatment). All treatments received 20 kg/ha of 15N-labelled foliar urea (10 atom% 15N) at veraison. An extra 5-vine control treatment (150-cm canopy and 5 bunches per vine) received no foliar urea. As a result, the leaf-fruit ratio had a strong impact on the grape maturity at harvest and on the labelled-N partitioning after urea application. The YAN varied from 143 ± 17 mg/L when the leaf-fruit ratio was 1.6 m2/kg (light-exposed leaf area / fruit quantity), up to 230 ± 25 mg/L when the leaf-fruit ratio was 0.4 m2/kg. The grapes were the strongest sink of all the vine organs, with more than 20 % of their total organic N originating from the urea treatment. Whereas a too small leaf-fruit ratio affected the grape maturity and the accumulation of labelled N in the reserve organs, a large canopy induced a diminution of the total N concentration (% dry weight) in all organs comparable to a “dilution” in the plant. Thus a balanced leaf-fruit ratio – between 1 and 1.5 m2/kg – should be maintained in order to guarantee the grape maturity, the accumulation of YAN in the must and the storage of N in the reserve organs. This study fosters further research at the isotopic molecular level to unravel other mechanisms controlling the source-sink relationship and the specific N partitioning between grapevine organs.

Publication date: April 4, 2024

Issue: Macrowine 2016

Type: Poster

Authors

Thibaut Verdenal* 

*Agroscope

Contact the author

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Macrowine | Macrowine 2016

Citation

Related articles…

Pesticide removal in wine with a physical treatment by molecular sieving

All along the winemaking process, conditioning and aging, wine is susceptible to be contaminated by different molecules. Contaminations can have various origins, related to wine microorganisms or as a result of an exogenous contamination. The aforementioned contamination of the wine can be caused by the migration of molecules from the materials in contact with the wine or by a contamination from exogenous molecules present in the air. Regardless of the source of the contamination, mainly two types of consequences can be observed.

Interest and impact of PVP/PVI (Polyvinylpyrrolidone/ Polyvinylimidazole) on winemaking and final quality of wines

Céline Sparrow a, Christophe Morge a, a SOFRALAB SAS, 79, av. A.A. Thévenet – CS 11031 – 51530 Magenta, France Consumers’ health and security force authorities to limit, in wine as in others food industry products, the concentration in « dangerous » molecules. Therefore the legal limit in heavy metals keeps on decreasing. As per proof EU regulation just decrease the stain concentration in wine from 0,2 to 0,15 mg/l. Certain changes , such as sodium arsenite treatment in vines, disappearance of brass in wineries to the benefit of stainless steel, limit even more the concentration of heavy metals in wines. But the use of copper derivates in vines treatments is difficult to replace. In the case of wine and its elaboration, the problem is even more complex. Indeed, regulation forces the wine producers to control the concentration of certain heavy metals in final wines.

Prevention of wine oxidation during barrel aging: an innovative method to measure antioxidant

Wine oxidation is a problem that affects the freshness, the aromatic profile, the colour and also the mouthfeel of the wine. It mainly concerns white wines. Oxygen interactions with wine compounds lead to the phenomena cited above that are responsible for the depreciation of these wines. Barrel aging is a crucial step in the wine process because it allows many modifications as wine enrichment, colour stabilization, clarification and also a slow oxygenation of the wine. Effects of the oak barrel have to be known to prevent oxidation of the wine. We have been interested in the main antioxidant compounds released by oak barrels to the wine and we have developed an innovative method to reach directly these antioxidant compounds at the oak stave surface.

Field-grown Sauvignon Blanc berries react to increased exposure by controlling antioxidant homeostasis and displaying UV acclimation responses that are influenced by the level of ambient light

Leaf removal in the bunch zone is a common viticultural practice with several objectives, yet it has been difficult to conclusively link the physiological mechanism(s) and metabolic berry impact to this widely practiced treatment. We used a field-omics approach1 in a Sauvignon blanc high altitude model vineyard, showing that the early leaf removal in the bunch zone caused quantifiable and stable responses (over years) in the microclimate where the main perturbation was increased exposure. We provide an explanation for how leaf removal leads to the shifts in grape metabolites typically linked to this treatment and confirm anecdotal evidence and previous reports that leaf removal treatment at an early stage of berry development affects “quality-associated” metabolites (monoterpenes and norisoprenoids).

The impact of different yeasts and harvest time on the wine quality of Beihong and Beimei (<I>V. vinifera x V. amurensis</I>)

Beihong and Beimei are two wine cultivars from ‘Muscat Hamberg’ (V. vinifera L.) and wild V. amurensis Rupr., which were released in China in 2008. Here,two enology practices were reported. Firstly, the impact of different yeasts including D254, GRE, K1, D21 and BDX on dry wine quality of Beihong and Beimei was investigated. For Beihong, among wines fermented by all yeasts, residual sugar content was the lowest, total anthocyanin and resveratrol contents were the highest in the wine by D254. However, the wine by D254 had lower titrable acid than those by the other yeasts except BDX.