Impact of chitosan treatment on the physico-chemical features of a sangiovese red wine

Aim: The study aims to show how different pedo-climatic conditions (past, present, and future) in three Italian sites at different latitudes (from center to southern), affect the adaptation of two red grapevine cultivars: Aglianico and Cabernet Sauvignon.

The addition of partially dehydrated grapes to enrich must composition for producing complex dry/sweet wines represents a traditional practice in several regions of the world. However, the environmental conditions of dehydration chambers may facilitate the infection of Botrytis cinerea Pers. by promoting disease and provoking large grape losses. B. cinerea attack can induce alterations in the profile of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which could be detected by sensors specifically trained to detect infection/disease-related compounds. These sensors could facilitate the early detection of the infection, consequently allowing to adjust some dehydration parameters.

Context and purpose. Nitrogen (N) is crucial for plant development but is used inefficiently, with only 30–40% of the fertilizer assimilated by crops, leading to significant environmental losses.

Sessile oak and pedunculate oak have shown several differences of interest for enological purposes. Tannic and aromatic composition among sessile oak or pedonculate oak has been well studied. Sessile oak is generally more aromatic than pedunculated, while the later is more tannic. This scientific point of view is rarely applied to classify oak in cooperages. Most coopers use the type of grain to distinguish wide and thin grain.

Although some wine production processes still rely on post-production evaluation and off-site laboratory analysis, the new winemaking industry is aware of a need for a better knowledge of the process to improve the properties of the final product. Thus, more and more wineries are interested in incorporating quality-by-design (QbD) strategies instead of postproduction testing because of the possibility to early detect deviations in fermentation or any other wine process. This would allow to detect unwanted situations and eventually to ‘readjust’ the process, thus minimizing rejects.