Cumulative effects of repeated drought stress on berry composition, and phenolic profile: Field experiment insights

I risultati delle ricerche condotte in un vigneto sperimentale di Marsala (TP), scelto per omogeneità di fattori bio-agronomici (età, tecniche colturali, potenzialità vegetativa e produttiva)

This paper analyses how terroir-driven wine producers in Portugal’s Douro Valley address current and emerging sustainability challenges while preserving cultural authenticity and the unique identity of their wines.

Brandy de Jerez (BJ) is a spirit drink made exclusively from spirits and wine distillates and is characterized by the use of casks for aging that previously contained Sherries. The quality and sensory complexity of BJ depend on the raw materials and some factors: grape variety, conditions during processing the wine and its distillation, as well as the aging in the cask. Therefore, the original compounds of the grapes from which it comes are of great interest (1 y 2) being in most cases the Airén variety. Their relationship with the quality of the musts and the wines obtained from them has been studied (3) and varies each year of harvest depending on the weather conditions (4).

Climate change critically challenges viticulture. Among other threats, extreme and increasingly frequent heatwaves cause irreversible burns on leaves and bunches. A series of observations and experiments was conducted to better understand how leaf burns originate and whether genetics or management practices can mitigate them. In 2019, a panel of 279 potted cultivars of Vitis vinifera L. grown outdoors suffered a heat peak and a genetic origin of leaf burn variability was demonstrated. To deeper explore this variability, fourteen cultivars were selected for their contrasting responses to high temperatures, and detached leaves were submitted to a controlled increase in temperature up to 50 °C in a growth chamber.

Aged red wines possess phenolic composition very different from young ones due to the transformations among native grape phenolics and the formation of new polymeric polyphenols during aging process.