Characterization of berry softening and sugar accumulation dynamics in a slow-ripening genotype and its response to abscisic acid treatments

In this video recording of the IVES science meeting 2024, Luca Brillante (California State University, Fresno, USA) speaks about vineyard management, advanced sensing and data analytics. This presentation is based on an original article accessible for free on OENO One.

Press wines play a crucial role in red winemaking, representing up to 15% of the final blend [1]. Optimizing their value is essential both economically and for maintaining wine identity, especially given evolving climatic and societal challenges. However, little recent research exists on their composition.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of different soil types on the chemical composition of Mediterranean red wines, through untargeted and targeted 1H-NMR metabolomics. One milliliter of raw wine was analyzed by means of a Bruker Avance II 400 spectrometer operating at 400.15 MHz. The spectra were recorded by applying the NOESYGPPS1D pulse sequency, to achieve water and ethanol signals suppression. No modification of the pH was performed to avoid any chemical alteration of the matrix. The generation of input variables for untargeted analysis was done via bucketing the spectra. The resulting dataset was preprocessed prior to perform unsupervised PCA, by means of MetaboAnalyst web-based tool suite. The identification of compounds for the targeted analysis was performed by comparison to pure compounds spectra by means of SMA plug-in of MNova 14.2.3 software. The dataset containing the concentrations (%) of identified compounds was subjected to one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to highlight significant differences among the wines. The untargeted analysis, carried out through the PCA, revealed a clear differentiation among the wines. The fragments of the spectra contributing mostly to the separation were attributed to flavonoids, aroma compounds and amino acids. The targeted analysis leaded to the identification of 68 compounds, whose concentrations were significant different among the wines. The results were related to soils physical-chemical analysis and showed that: 1) high concentrations of flavan-3-ols and flavonols are correlated with high clay content in soils; 2) high concentrations of anthocyanins, amino acids, and aroma compounds are correlated with neutral and moderately alkaline soil pH; 3) low concentrations of flavonoids and aroma compounds are correlated with high soil organic matter content and acidic pH. The 1H-NMR metabolomic analysis proved to be an excellent tool to discriminate between wines originating from grapes grown on different soil types and revealed that soils in the Mediterranean area exert a strong impact on the chemical composition of the wines.

The principles of virological control on different types of grapevine collections and plantations are summarized.

Botrytis cinerea is a necrotrophic pathogen that causes one of the most serious diseases of the grapevine (Vitis vinifera), grey mold or Botrytis bunch rot. In Champagne, the Botrytis cinerea disease leads to considerable economic losses for winemakers and wines exhibit organoleptic defaults.