The importance of soil and geology in tasting terroir; a case history from the Willamette valley, Oregon

Soil is a three-dimensional complex system, which constitutes a major component of Terroir. Soil characteristics strongly influence vine development, grape oenological potentialities and thus wine quality and style.

Several classes of flavonoids, such as anthocyanins, flavonols, flavanols and flavones, undergo a slow H/D exchange on aromatic ring A, leading to full deuteration at positions C(6) and C(8). Within the flavanol class, H-C(6) and H-C(8) of catechin and epicatechin are slowly exchanged in D2O to the corresponding deuterated analogues; even quercetin, a relevant flavonol representative, shows the same behaviour in a D2O/DMSOd6 1:1 solution. Detailed kinetic measurements of these H/D scrambling processes are here reported by exploiting the time-dependent changes of their peak areas in the 1H-NMR spectra taken at different temperatures. A unifying reaction mechanism is also proposed based on our detailed kinetic observations, even taking into account pH and solvent effects. Molecular modelling and QM calculations were also carried out to shed more light on several molecular details of the proposed mechanism.

The influence of dipping pretreatments on drying of ‘Pedro Ximenez’ grapes, destined to the elaboration of sweet wines, in chamber at controlled temperature, has been studied. Changes in color and phenolic composition of raisins produced were observed during the process of raisining.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae (SC) is the main driver of alcoholic fermentation however, in wine, non-Saccharomyces species can have a powerful effect on aroma and flavor formation. This study aimed to compare untargeted volatile compound profiles from SPME-GC×GC-TOF-MS of Sauvignon blanc and Shiraz wine inoculated with six different non-Saccharomyces yeasts followed by SC. Torulaspora delbrueckii (TD), Lachancea thermotolerans (LT), Pichia kluyveri (PK) and Metschnikowia pulcherrima (MP) were commercial starter strains, while Candida zemplinina (CZ) and Kazachstania aerobia (KA), were isolated from wine grape environments. Each fermentation produced a distinct chemical profile that was unique for both grape musts. The SC-monoculture and CZ-SC sequential fermentations were the most distinctly different in the Sauvignon blanc while the LT-SC sequential fermentations were the most different from the control in the Shiraz fermentations.

Uno degli aspetti più importanti nel commercio internazionale dei vini a denominazione è quello del riconoscimento dei diritti di esclusiva garantiti sui e dal territorio geografico d’o­rigine. Al fine di cautelarsi nei confronti della sempre più agguerrita concorrenza mondiale, è opportuno adottare adeguate protezioni ufficiali e legali delle denominazioni che possono derivare sia dalla “naturalità” del prodotto stesso che dalla “originalità” più particolare.