Historical reconquest of hillslopes by the “Vins des Abymes” after the collapse of Mont Granier in 1248 (Savoie, France)

Nowadays the use of non-Saccharomyces as starters of alcoholic fermentation (AF) has increased because of the modulation of the organoleptic profile of wines

The objective of the present work is to investigate wine produced from dehydrated grapes and vinified according to classical Roman manuals.

METHODS – Locally produced Muscat of Alexandria’s grapes were used for the sweet wine production, grown in the experimental vineyard of Instituto Superior de Agronomia (Lisbon, Portugal). The grapes were harvested manually slightly over-ripe and subjected to greenhouse drying. After 7-10 days dried grapes were transported to an experimental winery for various operations (e.g., grape weighing, sorting, crushing/destemming). Several maceration protocols were used comprising the addition of saltwater and white wine to whole bunches or destemmed grapes. Fermentation was conducted with the addition of commercial yeast. The standard physico-chemical parameters of wines were determined according to the OIV standards.

Extracellular substances (ECS) represent all molecules outside the cytoplasmic membrane, which are not directly anchored to the cell wall of microorganisms living through a planktonic or biofilm phenotype. They are the high-biomolecular-weight secretions from microorganisms (i.e. extracellular polymeric substances – EPS – proteins, polysaccharides, humic acid, nucleic acid), and the products of cellular lysis and hydrolysis of macromolecules. In addition, some high- and low-molecular-weight organic and inorganic matters from environment can also be adsorbed to the EPS. All can be firmly bound to the cell surface, associated with the EPS matrix of biofilm, or released as being freely diffusing throughout the medium.

Aim of the study was to investigate the metabolomic differences between Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon wines, divided according to their quality in two main groups: “Varietal” and “Premium”, and to point out metabolites tentative markers of their chemical signature and sensorial quality. Initially, 150 (50 x 3 biological replicates) experimental wines were produced by the same semi-industrial process, which covered 8 different Chilean valleys. The wine classification made by experts, divided the wines into two major groups (“Varietal” and “Premium”) and four subgroups (two for each major group). All the samples were analyzed according to a robust LC-MS based untargeted work-flow (Arapitsas et al 2018), and the proposed minimum reporting standards for chemical analysis of the Metabolomics Standards Initiative (Sumner et al 2007)

Spain is one of the main producers of high-quality fortified wines. Particularly some of them elaborated in Andalusia have acquired a great prestige for being unique due to their production in a specific geographical area with traditional methods, the grape variety used, the climate and the soil. Such is their distinguishing feature achieved that they have been protected by the European Union with the indication “Protected Designation of Origin” (PDO). Thus, there are four PDO of fortified wines in Andalucía (‘Condado de Huelva’, ‘Jerez Xérès Sherry’, ‘Manzanilla Sanlúcar de Barrameda’, and ‘Montilla-Moriles’). Furthermore, within each PDO,there are different categories according to their particular characteristics and winemaking conditions such as the aging process.