Terroir or Tūrangawaewae? Expressing sense of place in an emerging New Zealand wine region

Although there are detailed studies on the microbiota of Vitis vinifera L. grapes, little is known about the diversity of yeast communities present in non-vinifera Vitis ecosystems (i.e., grapes and spontaneously fermenting grape musts). Potentially scientific and/or enological valuable yeast strains from these non-vinifera Vitis ecosystems might never be isolated from V. vinifera L. Using a standard culture-dependent strategy, we studied the population of yeast species during initial stages of spontaneous fermentation of V. labrusca L. (Isabella) grape musts. Rare non-Saccharomyces yeast species were recognized in Isabella, including Candida azymoides, Pichia cecembensis, Candida californica, Candida bentonensis, Issatchenkia hanoiensis and Candida apicola.

Considering that the transfer of research results to the professional level is one of the keys to progress, GiESCO proposes to publish a technical guide supported by scientific references and in the form of standard sheets.

Hanseniaspora spp. are one of the most common yeast isolates in vineyards and wineries and play an important role in wine-making.

“Terroir” has been acknowledged as an important factor in wine quality
and style. It can be defined as an interaction between climate, soil, vine (cultivar, rootstock) and human
factors such as viticultural and enological techniques. Soil and climate are the two components of the “Terroir” with an important role on the vine development and berries ripening. The present study is focused on the effects of the weather conditions and the soil characteristics on the phenological and berries ripening dynamics of the “Touriga Nacional” in Dão region.

AIM: Stalks are empirically known to bring many benefits to the wine such as alcoholic reduction, color protection or improvement of the tannic intensity. Not much used on Swiss grape varieties, the aim of this study was to identify the relevance of using this type of winemaking in the case of Gamay and Gamaret red grape varieties.