Evidence of successful wine business strategies: customer acquisition, value or retention?

Comprehensive evaluation of grape composition at winery receiving areas often requires multiple measurements to ensure representativeness, as well as the use of analytical techniques that are time-consuming and involve sample preparation.

Viticulture is exposed to a range of new stressors, that are challenging its sustainability and disrupting famous and well-established production regions. Steady increase of average temperature, recurring heat waves, altered rainfall seasonal distribution, drought spells, increased pathogens pressure, they all mix up with increased frequency, making every growing season a special challenge and calling for new approaches to cope with worrying scenarios.

The shelf life of wine is a major concern for the wine industry. This is particularly true for wines intended for long cellaring, which are supposed to reach their peak after an ageing period ranging from a few months to several years, or even decades. Low, controlled oxygen inputs through the closure system are generally necessary for the wine to evolve towards its optimum organoleptic characteristics. Our previous studies have already shown that the interface between the cork and the bottleneck plays a crucial role in the transfer of oxygen into the bottled wine.

From Porto and then through Bordeaux, Champagne and Bourgogne, wine geographical indications (gi) were the driving models for this form of protection of distinctive signs for collective use. Many studies present the benefits of recognizing a gi for a given region, the challenges of its implementation, as well as the possibilities of promoting territorial development.

Pressing has a relevant impact on the characteristics of the must and subsequently on white wines produced [1]. Therefore, the adequate management of pressing can lead to the desired extraction of phenols and other grape compounds (i.e. Organic acids), aromas and their precursors, allowing the production of balanced wines [2]. This aspect is especially important to sparkling wine where the acidity and pH, and the content of phenols affect its longevity and the expected sensory character.