Terroir and sustainability: an analysis of brazilian vineyards from a territorial perspective

The Union defence of the “appellation Costières de Nîmes” hired a reflection on the future of its territory production in the interests of preservation and enhancement.

The reproducibility of elemental profile in wines produced across multiple vintages has been previously reported using grapes from a single scion clone of Vitis vinifera L. cv. Pinot noir. The grapevines were grown on fourteen different vineyard sites, from Oregon to southern California in the U.S.A., which span distances from approximately hundreds of meters to 1450 km, while elevations range from near sea level to nearly 500 m. In addition, sensorial (i.e. aroma, taste, and mouthfeel) and chemical (i.e. polyphenolic and volatile) differences across the different vineyard sites have also been observed among these wines at two aging time points. While strong evidence exists to support that grapes grown in different regions can produce wines with unique chemical and sensorial profiles, even when a single clone is used, the understanding of growing site characteristics that result in this reproducible differentiation continues to emerge. One hypothesis is that the elemental profile that a vineyard site imparts to the grape berries and the resulting wine is an important contributor to this differentiation in chemistry and sensory of wines. For example, various classes of enzymes that catalyze the formation of key aroma compounds or their precursors require specific metals. In this work, we begin to report correlations between elemental and volatile aroma profiles of site-specific Pinot noir wines, made under standardized winemaking conditions, that have been previously shown to be distinguished separately by these chemical analyses.

Vine clone selection aims at the survival of clones with particularly desireable attributes for the production of high quality wines. The purpose of this research was to study the enological potential of the clones of Greek indigenous grape varieties over two vintages, 2018 and 2019.
METHODS: Two clones of the white grape varieties Moschofilero (E26 and E27), Assyrtiko (E11 and 16), Roditis (25E16 and 02E1E21) and two clones of the red grape varieties Xinomavro (19 and E2E30) and Agiorgitiko (03E40 and 41E47) were vinified under the same protocol for the white wines and common for the red wines in 2018 and 2019. The resulting products were studied for several enological parameters such as alcohol content, volatile acidity, pH, total phenolics, anthocyanins and tannins for the red wines, as well as browning tests for the white wines. The aroma profile of these ten samples was investigated through sensory analysis with intensity rating of individual attributes on a five-point scale by a trained panel.

The alteration in the rainfall pattern and the increase in the temperatures associated to global climate change are already affecting wine production in many viticultural regions all around the world (1). In fact, grapes are nowadays ripening earlier from a technological point of view than in the past, but they are not necessarily mature from a phenolic point of view. Consequently, the wines made from these grapes can be unbalanced or show high alcohol content. Dramatic shifts in viticultural areas are currently being projected for the future (2).

In the production of sparkling wines, during the second fermentation, mannoproteins are released by yeast autolysis, which affect the quality of the wines. The effect of mannoproteins has been extensively studied, and may affect aroma and foam quality. However, there are no studies on the effect of other polysaccharides such as those from grapes. Considering the large production of waste from the wine industry, it was proposed to obtain polysaccharide-rich extracts from some of these by-products[1].