Greek and Cypriot grape varieties as a sustainable solution to mitigate climate change

The exploitation of secondary metabolic pathways of non-Saccharomyces yeasts is a promising approach to protect traditional wines from the ongoing climate change, which can alter their peculiar features by modifying the chemical composition of grape musts. In this regard, an interesting example is the sequential inoculum of Lachancea thermotolerans and Saccharomyces. Cerevisiae. The aim of the sequential inoculum is to increase titratable acidity by lactic acid accumulation, to lower pH and to reduce the alcohol and acetic acid content in wine.

Vigor declines in older vineyards and poor vine establishment in replant situations have been attributed to plant-parasitic nematodes. The northern root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne hapla, is the most prevalent plant-parasitic nematode species found in Washington wine grape vineyards. Management for nematodes in established vineyards is limited to the application of post-plant nematicides. We are evaluating new nematicides that are currently not registered in grape for their efficacy in controlling M. hapla and a part of that evaluation includes improving the alignment of nematicide application timing with the vulnerable second-stage juvenile (J2) life stage of M. hapla.

During wine aging, several complex phenomena of gas transfer take place in barrels due to the wine/oak contact. The efficiency of this gas transfer varies according to oak wood’s intrinsic physical properties. This research aims to better understand oxygen transfer phenomena through dry oak staves and especially through stave gaps, in order to reevaluate the importance of barrel-making on a barrel’s supply of oxygen. Experimentation was based on the development of an innovative permeameter of laboratory scale, for which the principal operating conditions concerning applied pressure, the choice of liquid phase/gas phase, and the grain type of oak are taken into account and investigated. With a specially developed tightening system, the existing pressure at stave gaps in a barrel could be reproduced on a laboratory scale in order to estimate its influence on oxygen transfer efficiency.

Nutrients in municipal treated wastewater (N, P, K, mainly) are a particular advantage in this source over conventional irrigation water sources

Vineyard yield forecasting is a key issue for vintage scheduling and optimization of winemaking operations. High errors in yield forecasting can be found in the wine industry, mainly due to the high spatial variability in vineyards, strong dependency on historical yield data, insufficient use of agroclimatic data and inadequate sampling methods