High resolution climatic zoning of the Portuguese viticultural regions

Regenerative agriculture is a set of agricultural practices that focus on improving the health of the soil, increasing biodiversity, and enhancing ecosystem services.

The wine region of “Vinhos da Campanha” is located in southern Brazil, on the Uruguay borderline. The colonization’s process in the region was characterized by territorial disputes between Portuguese

High concentration of sugars in grapes and alcohols in wines is one of the consequences of climate change on viticulture production in several wine regions. One of the options to alleviate this potential problem is to perform severe shoot trimming of the vines to limit the production of carbohydrates. Two different studies were performed in order to investigate the effects of severe shoot trimming on the composition of Merlot grapes; in a first study severe shoot trimming was performed at three different phenological stages (at berry set, at the beginning of veraison and at the end of veraison), while in a second study two trimming treatments (standard shoot trimming and severe shoot trimming performed at the end of veraison) were combined with two shoot densities in order to evaluate the relative impact of these treatments on Merlot grape composition.

The market share of Rosé wine in France has grown from 11 % to 32 % over the last 20 years. Current trends are towards rosé wines of a lighter shade of pink, and where possible, containing a greater concentration in varietal thiols. Grape varieties, the soil on which they are grown, viticultural practices and winemaking technology all impact the polyphenols, color and aromas of rosé wines.

Bentonite fining is widely used to prevent protein haze in white wines. Most wineries use laboratory-scale fining trials to define the appropriate amount of bentonite to be used in the cellar. Those pre-tests need to mimic as much as possible the industrial scale fining procedure to determine the exact amount of bentonite necessary for protein stability. Nevertheless it is frequent that, after fining with the recommended amount of bentonite, wines appear still unstable and need an additional fining treatment. It remains a major challenge to understand why the same wine, fined with the same dosage of the same bentonite, achieves stability in the lab, but not in the cellar.