Tools for terroir classification for the grape variety Kékfrankos

Nitrogen and temperature are two important factors that influence wine fermentation and volatile compounds production. Among the different compounds present in the must, nitrogen is an essential nutrient for the management of the fermentation kinetics but it also plays an important role in the synthesis of fermentative aromas. To address the problems related to nitrogen deficiencies, nitrogen additions during alcoholic fermentation have been developed.

Aims: This work aimed i) to calibrate the accuracy of estimating vineyard water status by crop water stress index (CWSI) compared to stem water potential; ii) to determine the time interval during the day that best correlates to stem water potential and iii) to understand the its usefulness.

All along the red winemaking process, many microorganisms develop in wine, some being beneficial and essential, others being feared spoilers. One of the most feared microbial enemy of wine all around the world is Brettanomyces bruxellensis. Indeed, in red wines, this yeast produces volatile phenols, molecules associated with a flavor described as “horse sweat”, “burnt plastic” or “leather”. To produce significant and detectable concentrations of these undesired molecules, the yeasts should first grow and become numerous enough. Even if the genetic group of the strain present and the cellar temperature may modulate the yeast growth rate¹ and thus the risk of spoilage, the main factor seems to be the wines themselves, some being much more permissive to B. bruxellensis development than others.

Botrytis cinerea has more than 1200 host plants and is one of the most important plant pathogens in viticulture. Under certain environmental conditions, it can lead to the development of a noble rot, which results in a specific metabolic profile, altering physical texture and chemical composition. The other microbes involved in this process and their functional genes are poorly characterised. We have generated metatranscriptomic [1,2] and DNA metabarcoding data from three months of the Furmint grape variety, representing the four phases of noble rot, from healthy berries to completely dried berries.

Evidence indicates that climate change affects the environment, human health, and well-being via drought, increasing greenhouse effect, and climatic catastrophes. As the wine sector is also negatively affected by climate change, the role of climate change mitigation and adaptation policies is important in wine production. One example of an adaptation policy is the implementation of grapevine genetics (duchene, 2016), while organic farming may be used as an approach to mitigate the consequences of climate change (vinci et al., 2022). To this end, the european commission’s objective is to reach the european green deal target of at least 25% of the european union’s agricultural land under organic farming by 2030.