Varieties and rootstocks: an important mean for adaptation to terroir

Atmospheric and statistical models were used to increase understanding of potential climatic impacts, resulting from mesoscale physical processes that cause significant temperature variability for viticulture within the Stellenbosch Wine of Origin district. Hourly temperature values from 16 automatic weather stations and 40 tinytag data loggers located in the vineyards were analysed.

Toasted vine-shoots as enological additive represents a promising topic due to their significant effect on wine profile. However, the use of this new enological tool with SEGs varieties different than wine and combined with others winemaking technologies, such as micro-oxygenation (MOX), has not been studied so far, despite this combination could result in wine with high chemical and organoleptic quality.

After bottling, the wine continues to evolve during storage. The choice of the stopper is an important factor in this evolution. In addition to the oxygen permeability of the closure, the migration of stopper compounds into the wine can also have an impact on the wine organoleptic properties. Many studies have shown that transfers of volatile compounds from the stoppers into the wine can happen depending on the type of closure used (1). Moreover, when cork-made stoppers are used, the migration of phenolic compounds from the stopper into the wine can also occur (2, 3).

In Portugal, the prospection and conservation of representative samples of intra-varietal variability of grapevine has been carried out for 46 years, and in 2010 an infrastructure was created for the conservation of all these genetic resources – the portuguese association for grapevine diversity (porvid) experimental centre for the conservation of grapevine diversity. the aim is to save the genetic identity of ancient varieties to prevent their imminent loss and to preserve the raw material for current and future selections, thus adding economic value and sustainability to the vine and wine sector.

Different yeasts were isolated from spontaneous fermentation of Assyrtiko grape must in Santorini Island, Greece. Molecular typing revealed the presence of three Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains (S9, S13, S24) and one strain of the yeast species Nakazawaea ishiwadae (N.i). The four isolated strains were further tested in laboratory scale fermentations of Assyrtiko must in pure inoculation cultures and in sequential inoculation (72 hours) of each S. cerevisiae strain with the strain of N. ishiwadae. All fermentation trials were realised in duplicate.