Changing the scale of characterization of a wine area: from a single protected designation of origin to a vineyard Loire Valley observatory (viLVO)

The Grapevine Red Blotch Virus (GRBV) poses a critical challenge to the wine sector, lacking a uniquely identified vector. Current control methods involve costly and labor-intensive vine removal, emphasizing the urgency for targeted alternatives. The limited understanding of intricate host-virus interactions underscores the need for foundational knowledge to develop innovative disease control strategies. These include efforts to boost the plant’s RNA interference (RNAi) response, including RNA-based topical applications.

Aging red wines in oak barrels is an expensive and laborious process that can only be applied to wines with a certain added value. For this reason, the use of oak alternatives coupled with micro-oxygenation has progressively increased over recent years, because it can reproduce the processes taking place in the barrels more economically and quickly [1]. Several studies have explored how oak alternatives [2-5] can contribute to wine composition and quality but little is known about the influence of their thickness.

The sensory characteristics of wine are a topic studied by several researchers over time, but it continues to be a current and challenging subject. These characteristics are fundamental for the consumer acceptability, which has increasingly aroused their interest to modulate them in line with current market trends and innovation demands. The wine physical-chemical and sensory properties depend on a wide set of factors: they begin to be designed in the vineyard and are later constructed during the various stages of winemaking. Afterwards, the wine is placed in bottles and stored or commercialized.

In field conditions, grapevine roots are colonized by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). Little is known about the species composition of AMF communities associated to grapevine.

The soil plays a pivotal role in the agroecological transition processes, due to its numerous implications in production support, water regulation, air and nutrient supply, and its function of reservoir for the major part of planet biodiversity. Therefore, soil quality and adequate soil management are key levers for an ecologically and economically sustainable viticulture. Gascogn’Innov (2017-2022) is an Operational Group funded by the European Innovation Partnership for Agriculture. As such, it gathered winegrowers from the south-west of France (Gascony), scientists, advisors and technicians, around a project focused on the biological functioning of viticultural soil and the design of better-adapted technical paths for soil protection.