Regionality in Australian Pinot Noir wines: A study using NMR and ICP-MS with commercial wines

This study explored the responses of Chardonnay and Sauvignon blanc grapevine cultivars to water deficit across four years, uncovering their shared patterns and distinctive coping mechanisms. The research was conducted in a commercial vineyard located in Isla de Maipo, Chile. Various characterization approaches were employed including plant water potentials (), gas exchange measurements, shoot vulnerability curves, productivity assessments, and leaf cell water relations. Linear mixed models and sensitivity analyses were performed using various statistical methods to evaluate cultivar responses to water deficit. As the water deficit progressed, both cultivars displayed a parallel reduction in stomatal conductance, leaf turgor, and increased shoot embolism.

This study examined the evolution of wine consumption trends from 2019 to 2024, analyzing market dynamics, sustainability preferences, and generational shifts in consumer behavior.

Plants have been shown to redistribute water between root sections and soil layers along a gradient of decreasing water availability. One benefit of this hydraulic redistribution is that water can be transported from roots in wet soil to others in dry soil, delaying the onset of water stress and increasing root longevity in dry environments. Grapevines are thought to redistribute water laterally across the trunk from wet to dry portions of the root system. However, it is unknown whether the phloem contributes to such water redistribution.

Global warming is responsible for a lack of organic acid in grape berries, leading to wines with higher pH and lower titrable acidity. The chemical, microbiological and organoleptic equilibriums are impacted by this change of organic acid concentration. It is common practice to acidify the wine in order to prevent these imbalances that can lead to wine defects and early spoilage. Tartaric acid (TA) is most commonly used by winemaker for wine acidification purposes. Fumaric acid (FA), which is authorized by the OIV in its member states for the inhibition of malolactic fermentation, could also be used as a potential acidification candidate since it has a better acidifying power than tartaric acid.

The application of sensors in viticulture is a fast and efficient method to monitor grapevine vegetative, yield and quality parameters and determine their spatial intra-vineyard variability. Molecular analysis at the gene expression level can further contribute to the understanding of the observed variability by elucidating how pathways responsible for different grape quality traits behave in zones diverging for one or the other parameter. The intra-vineyard variability of a Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard was evaluated by a standard Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) mapping approach, employing UAV platform, accompanied by detailed ground-truthing (e.g. vegetative, yield, and berry ripening compositional parameters) that was applied in 14 spots in the vineyard. Berries from different spots were additionally investigated by microarray gene expression analysis, performed at five time points from fruit set to full ripening.