Data deluge: Opportunities, challenges, and lessons of big data in a multidisciplinary project

With growing consumer interest in products without chemical additives, limiting the use of sulfites is a priority for the wine industry. Bioprotection is a biological alternative that avoids or reduces the risks of alterations that have a negative impact on the organoleptic quality of wines and, ultimately, on their acceptability to consumers. bioprotection can also provide a response to the risks of microbiological deviations, which are increased both by climate change and by the organization of harvesting operations, which increasingly include the use of multi-bins filled at the vine, exposing the harvest to sometimes high temperatures for longer periods of time.

Wine cellars are affected by seasonally fluctuating workloads and face challenges especially in the harvest period connected to the required timely processing of the harvested grapes.

Phenolic compounds are among the most important quality factors of wines. They contribute to the organoleptic characteristics of wine such as colour, astringency, and bitterness. Although tannins found in wine can come from microbial and oak sources, the main sources of polyphenols are skin and seed from grapes. Yet, the link between grape seed phenolic content and wine composition, or even the link between seed maturity stage and wine composition are poorly studied. This work describes and explains the seed tannins kinetics release in wine, but also the impact of seed maturity stage on seed tannins extractability.

Grape composition is strongly influenced by climate conditions. Their expected modifications in near future, notably because of increased temperatures, could significantly modify the biochemical composition of berries at harvest, and thus wine typicity and quality. Elevated temperatures favor sugar accumulation in grapes, enhance malic acid degradation and modify the amino acid content. They also reduce significantly anthocyanin accumulation in Merlot, leading to the imbalance between anthocyanins and sugars, while no significant effects on final anthocyanin levels were reported in Tempranillo[1] and finally affect aromas or aroma precursors.

Grape quality potential for wine production is strongly influenced by environmental parameters and agronomic factors. Several studies underline the rootstock effect on scions vegetative growth and berry composition [1] with an impact on wine quality. Rootstocks are promising agronomic tools for climate change adaptation and in most grape-growing regions the potential diversity of rootstocks is not fully used and only a few genotypes are planted. Moreover, little is known about the effect of rootstock genetic variability on the aromatic composition in wines.