Tannin potential and molecular toasting in cooperage: a tool to modulate fruity expression of red wine

Wine quality is defined by sensory and physico-chemical characteristics. In particular, sensory features are very important since they strongly condition wine acceptability by consumers. However, the evaluation of sensory quality can be subjective, unless performed by a tasting panel of experienced tasters. Therefore, it is of great relevance to establish relationships between objective chemical parameters and sensory perceptions, even though the complexity of wine composition makes it difficult. In this sense, more reliable relationships can be found for a particular wine typology or variety. The present study aimed to predict the perceived sensory quality from the physico-chemical parameters of ‘Barbera d’Asti’ DOCG red wines (Italy).

Context and purpose of the study ‐ Vine balance is a concept describing the relationship between carbon assimilation (usually estimated using a measure of vine vigour, e.g. pruning weight) and its utilisation for fruit production (usually estimated using harvest yield). Manipulating vine balance through leaf area or crop load adjustments affects the proportion of the vine’s total carbohydrate production required to mature the fruit. It is commonly considered that composition of the berry, and resulting wine, is strongly affected by vine balance.

In general, there is a well-established lexicon related to wine aroma and taste properties; however mouth-feel-related vocabulary usually includes heterogeneous, multimodal and personalized terms. Gawel et al.
(2000) published a wheel related to mouthfeel properties of red wine. However, its use in scientific publications has been limited. The authors accepted that the approach had certain limitations as it included redundant and terms with hedonic tone and some others were absent. It is of high interest to generate a mouth-feel lexicon and finding the chemical compound or group of compounds responsible for such properties in red wine. In the present work a chemical fractionation method has been developed.

We report the effects of different drip irrigation treatments on the agronomic performance and water relations of Tempranillo grapevines, pruned to a bilateral cordon

Aim: To investigate the effects of different levels of temperature and light intensity on grapevine vegetative growth and bud fruitfulness, which includes the number and size of inflorescence primordia in primary buds.