Physical-mechanical berry skin traits as powerful indicators of resistance to botrytis bunch rot

A study was conducted in the Vipava Valley (Slovenia) to understand the effects of positioning rows of Merlot (Vitis vinifera L.) vines on terraces on plant available water, yield, and grape composition

Context and purpose of the study ‐ Vine balance is a concept describing the relationship between carbon assimilation (usually estimated using a measure of vine vigour, e.g. pruning weight) and its utilisation for fruit production (usually estimated using harvest yield). Manipulating vine balance through leaf area or crop load adjustments affects the proportion of the vine’s total carbohydrate production required to mature the fruit. It is commonly considered that composition of the berry, and resulting wine, is strongly affected by vine balance.

This paper focuses on how taste in wine (and other foods) changes and the implications of this process
for producers and merchants.
It draws primarily on the changing taste of and taste for champagne in Britain in the 19th century. Between 1850 and 1880 champagne went from a dosage level of around 20% (20 grams sugar / litre) to 0%. Champagne became the ‘dinner wine of the elite – drunk with roast meat and savoury dishes.
Contemporaries accepted that while most people could distinguish the taste of good champagne from that of bad, very few could distinguish very good from good.

Une démarche de cartographie des sols a été engagée en 2009 par l’interprofession des vins du Beaujolais à l’initiative des professionnels de la région. A fin 2015

Not only vintner’s decisions in the vineyard, but also winemaker’s choices of technology approaches in the cellar play a significant role in the final wine style and quality. Whereas traditional technologies within chosen terroir are quite well explored and thus somehow predictable, there is no proper knowledge available on possible outcomes in case of implementing novel, alternative winemaking strategies. To reveal their effects on wine aroma compounds and sensory characteristics, two alternative strategies
(cryoextraction or addition of whole grape berries during last stages of fermentation) were compared to classical Vipava valley winemaking approach as normally used for an autochthonous variety Zelen. After separate vinification and bottling, all the experimental wines were subjected to semiquantitative metabolic profiling of volatile compounds (VOCs) by means of GC/MS and were then also sensorialy evaluated by pre-trained panel.