Understanding and managing wine production from different terroirs

Since some years, the French wine sector faces strategical challenges, all linked to climate change. Multiple issues have been observed like diseases development, early frost, drought, change in the precocity and maturity of grapes, each one resulting in loss of productivity and yield. In France, the varieties proposed today by nurseries are historical varieties that are not well adapted to those changes. Therefore, Mercier Frères, one of the leading grapevine nursery, has decided to start its own research programs, with the help of its laboratory Novatech, to answer the growing demand for new grapevine varieties.

It is a well-established fact that premature oxidation is noxious for wine aromatic quality and longevity. Although some oxidation-related aroma molecules have been previously identified, there are not works carrying out systematic research about the changes in the profiles of odour-active volatiles during wine oxidation.

The evaluation of different chemical compounds present in Uvalino wines was correlated with sensory analysis. The analysis showed a high content of polyphenolic compounds responsible for the organoleptic properties of wine, including color, astringency and bitterness.

INTEGRAPE was a European interdisciplinary network for “data integration to maximize the power of omics for grapevine improvement” (CA17111, https://integrape.eu/), funded by the European COST Association from September 2018 to 2022. This Action successfully developed guidelines and tools for data management and promoted the best practices in grapevine omics studies with a holistic future vision of: “Imagine having all data on grapevine accessible in a single place”.

Irrigation of vineyards is a matter of controversial arguments at areas of high quality wine production. Besides, the effects of the water in the plant are closer related to the water availability than to the irrigation regime.