Organic mulches improve vine vigour, yield and physiological response in a semi-arid region

Le zonage vitivinicole présente toute une série d’applications pratiques. Son importance est en train d’augmenter, soit en fonction des moyens techniques chaque fois plus performants, qui rendent possible le développement des zonages de plus en plus intégrées, consistants et utiles, soit en fonction d’un marché de plus en plus mondialisé. L’article situe la contribution du zonage au niveau de la production vitivinicole et du développement du territoire.

ÂThe natural abundance of carbon stable isotopes has been reported to be related to water availability in grapevines quite widely. In the case of nitrogen, the natural abundance of its stable isotopes is mainly affected by the nature of the source of nitrogen (organic vs. inorganic) used by the plant, though the bibliography available for grapevine is very scarce.

Champagne wines are produced via a two-step process: the first is an initial alcoholic fermentation of grape must that produces a still base wine, followed by a second fermentation in bottle – the prise de mousse – that produces the effervescence. This appellation produces non-vintage sparkling wines composed of still base wines assembled from different vintages, varieties, and regions. These base wines, or “reserve wines,” are typically conserved on their fine lies and used to compensate for quality variance between vintages (1). Continuously blending small amounts of these reserve wines into newer ones also facilitates preserving the producer’s “house style.”

INTRODUCTION: Foam stability of sparkling wines is significantly favored by the presence of surface active agents such as proteins and polysaccharides [1]. For that reason, the renowned sparkling wines are aged after the second fermentation in contact with the lees for several months (even years). Thereby wines are enriched in these macromolecules due to yeast autolysis. Since this practice is slow and costly, winemakers are seeking for alternative procedures to increase their concentration in base wines. In that sense, the supplementation with inactive yeast during alcoholic fermentation has been proposed [2]. The aim of this study was to determine whether this new strategy is really useful for enriching base wines in macromolecules and for improving foam properties of the base wines.

Climate change is driving global temperatures up together with a reduction of rainfall, posing a risk to grape yields, wine quality, and threatening the historical viticulture areas of Europe.