Developmental and genetic mechanisms underlying seedlessness in grapevine somatic variants

The Valpolicella area (Veneto Region, Italy) is famous for its high quality wines: Amarone and Recioto, both obtained from partial post-harvest dehydrated red grapes.

In recent years, wine consumption has been evolving towards new trends. On the one hand, awareness of health and responsible consumption has been growing, and with it, the demand for wines with lower or without alcohol content [1].

Using viticultural and enological techniques to increase aromatics in white wine is a prized yet challenging technique for commercial wine producers. Equally difficult are challenges encountered in hastening phenolic maturity and thereby increasing color intensity in red wines. The ability to alter organoleptic and visual properties of wines plays a decisive role in vintages in which grapes are not able to reach full maturity, which is seen increasingly more often as a result of climate change. A new, yeast-based product on the viticultural market may give the opportunity to increase sensory properties of finished wines. Manufacturer packaging claims these yeast derivatives intensify wine aromas of white grape varieties, as well as improve phenolic ripeness of red varieties, but the effects of this application have been little researched until now. The current study applied the yeast derivative, according to the manufacture’s instructions, to the leaves of both neutral and aromatic white wine varieties, as well as on structured red wine varieties. Chemical parameters and volatile aromatics were analyzed in grape musts and finished wines, and all wines were subjected to sensory analysis by a tasting panel. Collective results of all analyses showed that the application of the yeast derivative in the vineyard showed no effect across all varieties examined, and did not intensify white wine aromatics, nor improve phenolic ripeness and color intensity in red wine.

La diffusion récente et “explosive” du Chardonnay dans pratiquement toutes les zones de culture viticole du monde a fait penser, à tort, que cette variété s’adapte facilement à toutes les conditions pédo-climatiques ou presque. Cette thèse a été confirmée par la grande faculté d’adaptation dont a fait preuve le vignoble et par la popularité dont jouit le vin auprès des consommateur du monde entier.

During the tasting of a fine, old wine, the aromas generated in the glass are intertwined in an intimate, complex manner, expressing the fragrance of the aging bouquet. This aging bouquet, which develops during bottle storage through a complex transformation process, may result in a broad palette of nuances. Among these, undergrowth, truffle, toasted, spicy, licorice, fresh red- and black-berry fruit and mint descriptors were recently identified as features of its olfactory representation for red Bordeaux wines. Although a targeted chemical approach focusing on volatile sulfur compounds revealed the role played by dimethyl sulfide, 2-furanmethanethiol, and 3-sulfanylhexanol as molecular markers of the typicality of the wine aging bouquet of red Bordeaux wines, its chemical transcription has only partially been elucidated.