Organic Oregon: an emerging experience in terroir tourism

There are claims that wine grape cultivars are either isohydric or anisohydric; the former maintaining, and the latter decreasing, their plant water status as soil moisture declines. However, available information is inconsistent. There are those that show an existence of a continuum in cultivar response to soil moisture rather than a distinct categorization. Others even show both behaviors in the same cultivar grown in different environments. In this study we investigated the behavior of 30 own rooted Vitis vinifera cultivars during successive drydown and rewatering cycles over two growing seasons in arid eastern Washington (<200 mm annual precipitation).

Mycobiota encountered from vine to wine is a complex and diversified ecosystem that may impact grape quality at harvest and the sensorial properties of wines, thus leading to off-flavors [1-3]. Among known off-flavors in wine, fresh mushroom aroma (FMA) has been linked to some mold species, naturally pre-sent on grapes, producing specific volatile organic compounds (VOC) [4-5]. The most well-known are 1-octen-3-ol and 1-octen-3-one, although many other VOC are likely involved. To better understand the FMA defect, biotic and abiotic factors impacting growth kinetics and VOC production of selected fungal species in must media and on grapes were studied.

In recent years red wines are being produced in Andalusia from indigenous and foreign grape varieties, one of which is the Spanish variety Tempranillo.

Polyphenols are important compounds involved in many chemical and sensory wine features. In winemaking, adding oenological tannins claims to have positive impacts on wine stability, protection from oxidation and aroma persistence. Polyphenols are antioxidant compounds by either scavenging reactive oxygen and nitrogen species or chelating Fe2+ ions (1). However, as tannins oxidation leads to the formation of highly reactive species (i.e. ortho-quinones), it is still unclear if they have an effective role toward oxidation of wine aromas (2). In this work, we aim at studying the effect of two commercial tannins (proanthocyanidins, ellagitannins) on red wine flavour (mainly aroma) before and after air exposition.

A positive role of mannoproteins on wine stability and red wine mouth sensations has been widely described. Commercial mannoproteins are available and some yeast strains are offered with a higher formation of mannoproteins.