Assessment of environmental sustainability of wine growing activity in France

Valpolicella is a famous Italian wine-producing region. One of its main characteristic is the intensive use of grapes that are submitted to post-harvest withering. This is rather unique in the context of red wine, especially for the production of a dry red wine such as Amarone. Amarone wines produced in Valpolicella different geographic origin are anecdotally believed to be aromatically different, although there is no systematic study addressing the chemical bases of such diversity. Aroma is the product of a biochemical and technological series of steps, resulting from the contribution of different volatile molecules deriving from grapes, fermentations, and reactions linked to aging, as well as one of the most important features in the expression of the geographic identity and sensory uniqueness of a wine.

ln 1997, twenty six cultivation sites of cv. Muscat of Alexandria different for pedological conditions, altitude and exposition were selected through ail Pantelleria isle. ln each site, described and classified according to USDA Soil Taxonony and FAO Soil Classification methods, grapes, collected at technological ripening, were microvinificated, following a standard procedure which allowed to obtain the naturally sweet wine DOC Moscato di Pantelleria. Wines, five months after vinification, were analysed by gaschromatography.

The adoption of PIWI (Pilzwiderstandsfähige) grape cultivars, bred for resistance to fungal diseases, is a transformative step towards sustainable winemaking.

Global warming has enhanced the frequency and severity of drought events, hence calling for a better management of water resources in the vineyard and for an improvement of breeding platforms. Somatic embryogenesis (SE) (i.e. the initiation of embryos from somatic tissues) can spontaneously generate new genetic variability, which results from genetic mutations, changes in epigenetic marks, or phenotypic alterations.
This study was tailored to test whether vines in vitro regenerated through SE (i.e. somaclones), can tolerate water deprivation better than the mother plant.

Biogenic amines exist in numerous foods, including wine. They can have aliphatic (putrescine, cadaverine, spermine, and spermidine), aromatic (tyramine and phenylethylamine) and heterocyclic structure (histamine and tryptamine)