Yield formation and grape composition: more than meets the eye 

Many farming operations aim at controlling the leaf area of the vine according to its load. There are several techniques, direct and indirect, of estimate of this leaf area in a specific way, but impossible to implement at great scales. These last years, research in airborne and satellite remote sensing made it possible to show that a multispectral index of vegetation, computed from measurements of reflectances (red and near infrared), the « Normalised Difference Vegetation Index » (NDVI), is well correlated to the « Leaf Area Index » (leaf area per unit of ground) of the vine. Nevertheless these methods of acquisition and processing data are rather constraining and complex.

Defined the new paradigm, the applied philosophy, the methodology, the algorithm of the “Charter for Universal Holistic MetaEthic Sustainability 4.1C17.18”, research has continued to define and write, an
handbook that should be:”Complete Universal Holistic MetaEthics 4.1C of descriptors” of the “Charter for Sustainability Universal Holistic MetaEthic 4.1C17.18” with basic and applicative indexing. In these activities and research we have involved over 3500 Italian and non-Italian people from the research world to simple but educated, enlightened and enlightening citizens and we have analyzed over 180000
entries concerning the descriptors above, which represent the basic “descriptors”.

Malic acid has a strong impact on wine pH and the contribution of fermenting yeasts to modulate its concentration has been intensively investigated in the past. Recent advances in yeast genetics have shed light on the unexpected property of some strains to produce large amounts of malic acid (“acidic strains”) while most of the wine starters consume it during the alcoholic fermentation. Being a key metabolite of the central carbohydrate metabolism, malic acid participates to TCA and glyoxylate cycles as well as neoglucogenesis. Although present at important concentrations in grape juice, the metabolic fate of malic acid has been poorly investigated.

Mannoproteins are polysaccharides released by Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast during alcoholic fermentation or by enzymatic action during aging on yeast lees (autolysis). These molecules play a major role in wine characteristics processing, namely, in the tartaric stabilization and protein haze prevention; moreover, they improve color stability and reduce astringency.

Knowledge of the reflectance spectrum of grape leaves is important to the identification of grape varieties in images of viticultural regions where several cultivars co-exist.