Smoke tainted wine – what now?

Flavescence dorée (FD) is a very serious grapevine disease, classified as quarantine in europe, where it appeared in the middle of the last century. It is associated with the presence of phytoplasmas, transmitted in the vineyard by a leafhopper of american origin, scaphoideus titanus. FD causes severe wine production losses and often leads to plant death. There are currently no alternative solutions to insecticide treatments against the vector and uprooting diseased vines.

Traditionally, non-saccharomyces yeasts were deemed undesirable in winemaking, for this reason, it is a common practice to add sulphites to prevent their proliferation during the initial stages of vinification. However, the current research on yeast diversity has unveiled numerous non-saccharomyces strains possessing advantageous traits that enrich the sensory profile of wines. The genus hanseniaspora is often associated with wine fermentation and is also commonly found on grapes.

Grapevine is one of the world’s most important cultivated plants, domesticated from the wild vine over 11,000 years ago. The fungi associated with it are doubtless as old as the plant itself. Despite their co-evolution with the vine over the centuries, it was only with the invention of the microscope in the seventeenth century that fungi started to be recognised.

Considering That Innovation Supports A Company’s Competitive Advantage And Drive Higher Profits (Dogru A. & Peyrette J., 2022), A Key Challenge Of Wine Companies Is Getting Practitioners To Understand That Innovation-Related Wine Research Increases The Likelihood Of Competitive Advantage, Bringing Financial Success. A Continued And Enhanced Investment In Research Is, Thus, A Prerequisite For Commercial Success In Today’s Globalized And Competitive Wine Industry (Høj P., Pretorius I.S., & Day R., 2003).

Italy has a long history of viticulture and has become one of the world’s leading producers of vine propagation material. The Italian vine nursery industry is today highly qualified and has become highly competitive on a global scale. The quality of the material is guaranteed by compliance with European Union regulations, which have been in force since the second half of the 20th century and have subsequently been supplemented and updated.