REDWINE project: use of Chlorella vulgaris to prevent biotic and abiotic stress in Palmela’s region, Portugal, vineyards

Previous work from our laboratory has shown that both a purified toasted oak powder and extracts made from unoaked and oaked red wines influenced physiological parameters, metabolism and hepatic gene expression in high-fat fed C57/BL6J male mice (Luo et al., 2020).  Impacted pathways included glucose metabolism, liver fat accumulation, markers of chronic inflammation, and expression of the Gsta1 mRNA.  

The advent of precision viticulture (PV) has allowed to address problems related to spatial and temporal variability at the within-field scale. Nowadays, several remote and proximal sensing solutions allow description of the existing variability at different temporal and ground resolution through extremely robust soil, vigor, yield, and grape quality maps. In parallel, numerous studies have described grapevine performances within the homogeneous zones and identified soil as main driver of variability. There is a broad consensus that different vigor zones within the same plot may show differential canopy growth, yield and fruit composition, depicting diverse enological potentials and cultural needs.

The European geographical indication (GI) Brandy Italiano is exclusively reserved to brandy obtained in Italy from the distillation of wine from grapes grown and vinified in the national territory [1].

Wine lees are quantitatively the second most important wine by-product after grape stems and marc [1]. In order to recycle, distilleries recovered ethanol and tartaric acid contained in wine lees but yeast biomass is often unused. It has already been demonstrated that this yeast biomass could be upcycled to produce yeast extracts of interest for wine chemical stabilization [2]. In addition, it is well known that lees, during aging, release compounds that preserve wine from oxidation.

Aims: Soils are an intrinsic feature of the landscape and have influenced culturally and economically important terroir delineation in many wine-producing regions of the world. Soil physiochemical properties govern a wide array of ecosystem services, and can therefore affect grapevine health and fruit development. These physiochemical properties can reflect a combination of factors,