Armenia: historical origin of domesticated grapevine

Plastic film covering is a technique largely used in viticulture to protect table grapes vines from adverse weather conditions and to reduce the negative effects of grapevine fungi disease. Plastic film composition affects solar radiation income inside the covering with effects on sunlight wavelengths in relation to different absorbance and reflectance. The interaction of selected light ranges with vines could influence grape ripening and yield and consequently influence shelf life.

Wine authenticity and composition can be influenced by a range of membrane separation processes as reverse osmosis. In the context of climate change, the natural trend is to obtain wines with higher alcoholic concentration when classical winemaking methods are employed, and this may induce alteration of typicity of wines by masking the olfactory and taste properties. This study aimed to evaluate the influence of reverse osmosis techniques used for decrease of ethanol content on the stable isotopic ratios as markers for wine authenticity characteristics.

Yeasts serve as highly versatile tools in oenology. They do more than just perform alcoholic fermentation. Nowadays, yeasts from various species, naturally present in grapes, are selected for specific non-fermentative applications. For example, the use of selected non-saccharomyces at the early stage of winemaking has become a common practice to limit the growth of unwanted microorganisms. When inactivated, yeasts can be fractionated into soluble and insoluble fractions providing a wide range of benefits related to structural components or specific metabolites.

Wine aging with oak chips is nowadays a common alternative to barrel aging, aiming to improve wine quality through the fast extraction of wood derived compounds. From the pool of wood phenols, ellagitannins have been reported to have the most significant impact on the wine’s organoleptic profile. Their final concentration in wines is influenced by several factors, with toasting level considered as one of the most important.

Grapevines are very sensitive to weather conditions. Excessively hot and dry periods trigger the activation of survival mechanisms, such as reduction of crop transpiration and the redistribution of water. Monitoring these mechanisms is, therefore, essential to better understand the grapevine water dynamics and maximize water-use efficiency.