Arsenic in soil, leaves, grapes and wines

It is quite common nowadays to carry out analyses which allow to control the ageing of spirits that are aged in wood casks. Many control parameters have been previously studied, such as the concentration of different phenolic compounds or the Total Polyphenol Index, in order to better understand the ageing process of wood aged spirits. On the other hand, it is frequent to analyse as a physical parameter the colour of those spirit samples, by stating them as an array of three coordinates from various colour spaces as CIE L*a*b* or CIE L*C*H*.

The quality of wines has often been associated with their geographical area of production. The aim of this work was to characterize Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) Xinomavro red wines from different geographical areas of Amyndeon and Naoussa in Northern Greece, elaborated with variables that contribute to their differentiation, such as soil characteristics, altitude, monthly average temperature and rainfall.
Xinomavro fruit parcels from different vineyards within the two PDO zones (5 PDO Naoussa and 6 PDO Amyndeon) were vinified following a standard winemaking process. A total of 25 aroma compounds were quantified using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) with simultaneous full scan and selected ion monitoring for data recording, and odor activity values (OAVs) were determined.

Astringency is a specific oral sensation dominated by dryness and puckering feeling and is one of the leading quality factors for red wines, as well as some fruit products

One of the major challenges for food security and sovereignty is to produce stress-tolerant plants without introducing foreign DNA, because the legislative process, that bans transgenics, challenges us to find new solutions for producing plants that can survive the drought. To achieve this goal, we need to identify genes that can be modified to improve stress tolerance in plants. In this work, we present an online tool for exploring the transcriptome of grapevines under water stress, which is one of the most important abiotic stresses affecting viticulture. The tool is based on a comprehensive collection of rna-seq data from 997 experiments, covering four different tissues (leaf, root, berry, and shoot), various levels of water stress, and diverse genetic backgrounds (cultivars and rootstocks) with different levels of tolerance to water stress.

For the purpose of producing predicate wines in northern part of Croatia, grapes are traditionally left on the vine unpicked. However, grapes on the vine are exposed to unfavorable environmental conditions that affect rapid rotting and attacked by birds. To eliminate the mentioned risks, the grapes can be picked and placed in a protected space (loft, greenhouse, etc.) suitable for drying. This study presents the results of research on withering grapes of the ‘Moscato giallo’ variety in two tretment: sun drying (under covered terrace) and drying in the shade (loft). The following quality parameters were monitored: mass of grapes, sugar concentration, content of total acids, pH, content of organic acids.