How sensory quality of wines can be accessed as a trait in MAS grape vine breeding

Abstract

In the context of the global crises of global warming, biodiversity and pollution, current agricultural practices need to be reconsidered. Grape breeding can contribute to making viticulture more sustainable by providing new grape varieties with resistance to pests, thus reducing the use of pesticides and their impact on biodiversity and pollution.

As a traditional product with well-established wine styles, the acceptance of new varieties is strongly dependent on sensory quality. In order to speed up grapevine breeding and make it more efficient, wine sensory quality should be included as a trait for marker-assisted selection (MAS) in a grapevine breeding programme.

In the current multidisciplinary project, two segregating F1 populations of ‘Calardis Musqué’ x ‘Villard Blanc’ crosses, including a total of 150 selected individual genotypes, were characterised by a high-density genetic map using a ‘genotyping by sequencing’ approach. More than 1300 individual wines were vinified over eight vintages and comprehensively characterised by sensory and chemical analysis.

Sensory evaluation revealed a constant set of ‘best’ and ‘worst’ rated genotypes, independent of geolocation and vintage. In addition, overall wine quality correlated with the descriptive attributes of ‘floral’ and ‘fruity’ nuances of aroma.

Targeted aroma analysis for monoterpenes, C13 norisoprenoids and varietal volatile thiols was correlated with sensory results and linked to genetic information from a high-density genetic map of the population via QTL analysis.