Cover crops under-vine impact on grapevine performance and vineyard soil microorganisms is highly affected by edaphoclimatic conditions at a regional scale 

The concept of viticultural terroir includes soil, sub-soil, and climatic factors but also many management viticultural and oenological practices which are chosen according to know-how of the winegrowers.

The oxidative stability of white wines is related to a flow of chemical reactions involving a number of native wine containing compounds composing their antioxidant metabolome.

Wine industry has to develop new strategies to reduce the negative impact of global climate change in wine quality while trying to mitigate its own contribution to this climate change. The term “ecosystem services”, whose use has been recently increasing, refers to the benefits that human beings can obtain from the interactions between the different living beings that coexist in an environment or system. The management of biodiversity in the vineyard has a positive impact on this crop. It has recently been reported that practices such as plant cover can reduce the occurrence of pests, increase pollination of the vine, improve plant performance1 and affect the phenolic content of grapes.2

Prior to winemaking, organic or mineral nitrogen compound concentrations are usually measured in the vineyard and in grape musts. These indicators facilitate vine cultivation decisions, usually through yield or vigor. During vinification, yeast and bacteria metabolize nitrogen compounds in the musts in order to generate biomass. After fermentation, the microorganisms rerelease a part of this nitrogen as soluble compounds into the wines. Another part remains bound in the lees and can be lost during racking. The must’s natural nitrogen quantities, additional supplements during fermentation, and lees contact management enhance the release of nitrogen compounds to the wines. During ageing these nitrogen compounds – primarily the amino acids – are implicated in the generation of odorous compounds such as heterocycles(1).

The transition to a decarbonized economy requires companies to adopt mitigation measures. The wine sector is one of the most affected by climate change and, therefore, interested in its mitigation. The question is how this process develops. To address this, we build on a previous study [1], which identified different types of Spanish wineries based on their sustainability approach.