Obtaining new varieties derived from Monastrell for the preparation of low alcoholic wines

According to the different concern of the ‘traditional’ and the ‘new’ wine-producing Countries, a variable importance is recognized to the climate/soil and to grapevine cultivars as factors affecting the wine quality. However, the viticultural experience can state that, within each area, climate and soil plays an incontestable role in affecting grape quality, and consequently wine quality, as well as the genetic characteristics of the cultivar.

This project aims on monitoring the plant development and comparison of the effects of various training systems on vine fertility and physiological processes.

The color as well as the “clarity” of red wines are ones of the qualities required by the consumers. Red wines must have colloidal stability from its bottling to its consumption. The supplementation of red wines with additives, and especially Acacia senegal gum, contributes to its organoleptic properties such as the colloidal stabilization of the coloring matter. In a global perspective of limitation of additives in the field of enology, one of the objectives is notably (i) to reduce the use of additives in wines, by their number and/or their quantity, and (ii) to favor the use of natural additives while preserving the organoleptic and sensory qualities of wines.

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.

AIM: Glutathione (GSH) is a powerful natural antioxidant, considered as a promising molecule against oxidative damage of aroma during winemaking and storage.