In vitro tissue culture as a tool for Croatian grapevine germplasm management

AIM: The aim of this work was to study the inhibitory effect of the three most frequently used wine antioxidants – sulfur dioxide, ascorbic acid and glutathione – on the kinetics of browning caused by Botrytis cinerea laccase using a grape juice synthetic model in which (-)-epicatechin was the substrate.

Vine clone selection aims at the survival of clones with particularly desireable attributes for the production of high quality wines. The purpose of this research was to study the enological potential of the clones of Greek indigenous grape varieties over two vintages, 2018 and 2019.
METHODS: Two clones of the white grape varieties Moschofilero (E26 and E27), Assyrtiko (E11 and 16), Roditis (25E16 and 02E1E21) and two clones of the red grape varieties Xinomavro (19 and E2E30) and Agiorgitiko (03E40 and 41E47) were vinified under the same protocol for the white wines and common for the red wines in 2018 and 2019. The resulting products were studied for several enological parameters such as alcohol content, volatile acidity, pH, total phenolics, anthocyanins and tannins for the red wines, as well as browning tests for the white wines. The aroma profile of these ten samples was investigated through sensory analysis with intensity rating of individual attributes on a five-point scale by a trained panel.

Climate change represents a major challenge for the French wine industry. Climatic conditions in French vineyards have already changed and will continue to evolve. One of the notable effects on grapevine is the advancing growing season. The aim of this study is to characterise the evolution of agroclimatic indicators (Huglin index, number of hot days, mean temperature, cumulative rainfall and number of rainy days during the growing season) at French wine-growing regions scale between 1980 and 2019 using gridded data (8 km resolution, SAFRAN) and for the middle of the 21th century (2046-2065) with 21 GCMs statistically debiased and downscaled at 8 km. A set of three phenological models were used to simulate the budburst (BRIN, Smoothed-Utah), flowering, veraison and theoretical maturity (GFV and GSR) stages for two grape varieties (Chardonnay and Cabernet-Sauvignon) over the whole period studied. All the French wine-growing regions show an increase in both temperatures during the growing season and Huglin index. This increase is accompanied by an advance in the simulated flowering (+3 to +9 days), veraison (+6 to +13 days) and theoretical maturity (+6 to +16 days) stages, which are more noticeable in the north-eastern part of France. The climate projections unanimously show, for all the GCMs considered, a clear increase in the Huglin index (+662 to 771 °C.days compared to the 1980-1999 period) and in the number of hot days (+5.6 to 22.6 days) in all the wine regions studied. Regarding rainfall, the expected evolution remains very uncertain due to the heterogeneity of the climates simulated by the 21 models. Only 4 regions out of 21 have a significant decrease in the number of rainy days during the growing season. The two budburst models show a strong divergence in the evolution of this stage with an average difference of 18 days between the two models on all grapevine regions. The theoretical maturity is the most impacted stage with a potential advance between 40 and 23 days according to wine-growing regions.

Cultivation of a few number of clones is causing the loss of vineyard biodiversity, resulting in the disappearance of biotypes that could be of interest to face future challenges,

Smoke impact in wines is caused by a wide range of volatile phenols found in wildfire smoke. These compounds are absorbed and accumulate in berries, where they may also become glycosylated. Both volatile and glycosylated forms eventually end up in wine where they can cause off-flavors, described as “smoky”, “bacon”, “campfire” and “ashtray”, often long-lasting and lingering on the palate. In cases of large wildfire events, economic losses for all wine industry actors can be devastating.