Characterization of the Origin Denomination “Ribeira Sacra”

Climate change poses a significant challenge for global viticulture, with growing evidence of its negative impact on thermal and hydric regimes, both of which are essential for the development of table grapes.

Vitis vinifera L. and other Vitis have high genetic variations for cultivars or varieties. Many countries carried out strong efforts creating new clones of varieties, mainly focusing on plants free of viruses and other grapevine diseases, but also on different agronomical and enological characteristics of the plants. The aim of this study was to evaluate six clones of Merlot in the traditional viticulture of southeastern Brazil, focusing on distinct characteristics of yield, enological potential of grapes and wine typicality, in order to improve wine quality.

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.

Must oxidation is a complex process involving multiple enzymatic transformations, including the oxidation of phenolics containing an ortho-diphenol function. The latter process has a primary influence on wine aroma characteristics and stability, due to the central role of ortho-diphenols in the non-enzymatic oxidative reactions taking place during winemaking and in finished wine. Although oxidation of must is traditionally avoided, in recent years its contribution to wine quality has been revisited, and in some cases improvements to wine aroma have been observed with the application of controlled must oxidation. Nowadays there is a great interest in the wine industry towards the identification of specific markers or patterns to characterize and classify the response of grape must to oxidation.

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.