Observation and modeling of climate at fine scales in wine-producing areas

Although vitamins stand as major actors to yeasts prime metabolic pathways, their significance in oenology and winemaking remains rather obscure nowadays, having been mostly unexplored for several decades.

This work aims at identifying the most appropriate marketing strategies to inform consumers of the global market about the added value of the wines of Friuli Venezia Giulia.

According to the Kyoto Protocol objectives, it’s necessary to identify alternative carbon dioxide sinks, and vineyard soils could be a significant opportunity.

The gustatory balance of wines relies on sweetness, bitterness and sourness. In dry wines, sweetness does not result from the presence of residual sugar as in sweet wines, but is due to other non-volatile compounds. Such taste-active compounds are released during winemaking, by grapes, yeasts or oak wood and belong numerous chemical families [1]. Beyond this diversity, stereochemistry of molecules can also influence their sensory properties [2]. However, the molecular determinants associated with this taste have only been partially elucidated. Astilbin (2R, 3R) was recently reported to contribute to wine sweetness [3]. As its aglycon contains two stereogenic centers, three other stereoisomers may be present: neoisoastilbin (2S, 3R), isoastilbin (2R, 3S), and neoastilbin (2S, 3S). These compounds have already been observed in natural products, but never in wine. This work aimed at assaying their presence for the first time in wines as well as their taste properties.The isomers were synthesized from astilbin and purified by semi-preparative HPLC.

Developing a sustainable agricultural production system and acquiring the full potential of land resources requires employing land-use assessment. This entails knowledge of the climate, soil, and topography of the area of interest.