Using a grape compositional model to predict harvest time and influence wine style

Oxidative stability is a critical factor in wine shelf-life. SO₂ is commonly added to wine due to its strong antioxidant activity, although there is a general push to reduce SO₂ use in vinification.

Cette recherche a eu pour but l’étude des effets d’un renforcement radiatif et thermique sur les zones inférieures de la canopée de la vigne (solarisation par des films ou des paillages réfléchissants installés sur le sol, sous les ceps), notamment l’étude de leurs conséquences sur la composition biochimique des moûts à la vendange et sur la qualité des vins.

Winemaking areas recognized as protected designations of origin (PDOs) shape important economic, environmental and cultural values that are tied to closely defined geographic locations. To preserve wine products and wine-growing practices adopted in different PDOs these areas are strictly regulated by legal specifications. However, quality viticulture is increasingly under pressure from climate change, which is altering the local conditions of many winegrowing areas. Therefore, maintaining traditional wine products will require the adoption of tailored adaptation strategies, including possible changes in the legal regulation of protected wines. To this end, it is necessary to have a comprehensive knowledge on PDOs including their extension, products and allowed practices. While there have been efforts to build databases that summarize the characteristics for individual wine PDO areas and to quantify the related effects of climate change, much information is still included only in the official documentation of the EU geographical indication register and has never been collected in a comprehensive manner. With this study we aim at filling this gap by building a spatial inventory of European wine PDOs that supports decision making in viticulture in the context of climate change. To map and characterize European wine PDOs, we analysed their legal documents and extracted relevant information useful for climate change adaptation. The output consists of a comprehensive geographical dataset that identifies the boundaries of all 1200 European wine PDOs at unprecedented spatial resolution and includes a set of legally binding regulations, such as authorized vine varieties, maximum yields and planting density. The inventory will allow researchers to analyse the impacts of climate change on European wine PDOs and support decision makers in developing tailored adaptation strategies. This includes, among others, the evaluation of new vineyard site selection, the expansion of cultivated varieties or the authorization of irrigation in vineyards.

Undesirable compounds in wine, like OTA, biogenic amines, and pesticide residues, can negatively affect its quality and pose health risks to consumers. In addition, an excess of tannins can lead to an unpleasant rise in astringency and bitterness, which makes tannins another target of reduction.

Il a été souvent démontré (Seguin, 1970), que les meilleurs terroirs sont ceux qui présentent pendant la période de maturation du raisin, une régulation et une limitation de l’alimentation hydrique de la vigne. Si on s’intéresse aux facteurs influençant ce régime hydrique, on constate le rôle prépondérant du taux d’éléments grossiers non poreux qui limitent la réserve utile du sol en diminuant le taux de terre fine. De plus, ces éléments grossiers jouent également un rôle au niveau du pédo-climat thermique car leur conductivité thermique et leur chaleur spécifique sont plus élevées que celles de la terre fine. Ainsi le sol se réchauffera et se refroidira plus rapidement (Saini et McLean, 1967), (Gras, 1994).