Can the use of rootstocks enhance terroir?

vine plant material is one of the major factors of terroir. The vine numbers over 1,000 species, of which the main cultivated species, Vitis vinifera, includes some 6,000 varieties. For the last forty years, selection has been carried out on these, mainly through clonal selection. However, today, only 300 varieties present one or more clones. A dozen varieties are considered as international. The extreme requirements of selection, in terms of diseases, provoke the elimination of the majority of selected plants. This approach to selection is not thorough because it focuses mainly on elimination of virosis and phytoplasma diseases.

Identification of specific analytical fingerprints associated to grape variety, origin, or vintage is of great interest for wine producers, regulatory agencies, and consumers. However, assessing such varietal fingerprint is complex, time consuming, and requires expensive analytical techniques. Voltammetry is a fast, cheap, and user-friendly analytical tool that has been used to investigate and measure wine phenolics.

In the face of climate change, new grapevine varieties will have to show an adaptive phenotypic plasticity to maintain production with erratic water resources, and still ensure the quality of the final product. Their selection requires a better knowledge of the genetic basis of those traits and of the elementary processes involved in their variability. ‘PlastiVigne’, an emblematic project of the Vinid’Occ key challenge, funded by the Occitanie Region (France), tackles this issue with innovative genomic and physiological tools implemented on a unique panel of grape genetic resources representing the genetic diversity of Vitis vinifera. A graph-pangenome is developed from a representative set of high-quality genomes to study the extent and impact of structural genome variations and chromosomal rearrangements in the rapid adaptation capacity of grapevine.

In 1979 an enlightened and farsighted business owner in an area and in an activity unknown to him and in 120 hectares of land cultivated with corn and wheat expressed to one of us that he wanted to start a business in the wine sector. The first innovative “Vigna Dogarina Scientific Applicative Project” has become famous and harmoniously inserted in and with the “Territoir” of eastern Veneto in northeastern Italy. The revolutionary project allowed one of us: 1. to put into practice results of research related to the applied philosophy, vision, methodology of the “Great MetaEthic Chain 4.1C®” algorithm of the “Conegliano Campus 5.1C®” that considers all material, immaterial, spiritual, technical, economic, environmental, social, existential, relational, ethical, MetaEthical factors with basic indexing in a harmonious chain “ 4.1C®” and application “5.1C®”, 2. to implement:

Yeast protein extracts (ypes) have flocculating properties, allowing clarification of musts and wines. They are already authorized by oiv for fining purposes with a maximum dosage limit of 60 g/hl for red wines, and 30 g/hl for musts, white and rosè wines. The extraction of ypes from the cytoplasm of yeasts (saccharomyces spp) cells is defined by the resolution oiv oeno 452-2012, that indicate also some specification of the final product.