Main viticultural soils in Castilla – La Mancha (Spain)

Climate change is increasing crop evapotranspiration and reducing water availability, especially in the Mediterranean area.

Viticulture on steep slopes has shaped exceptionally species-rich cultural landscapes in Germany.

Grapevine winter hardiness is a key factor in vineyard success in many cool climate wine regions. Winter hardiness may be governed by several factors in addition to extreme weather conditions – e.g. soil factors (texture, chemical composition, moisture, drainage), vine water status, and yield– that are unique to each site.

Winemaking generates various types of residues (vine shoots, stalks, pomace, wine lees and filtration cakes) which can have a notable environmental and economic impact. Wine by-products are rich in bioactive compounds and therefore their valorization can be beneficial on different levels.

Global climate change is exerting an influence on vine phenology, leading to a decoupling of technological and phenolic maturity of grapes. This results in the modification of berry chemical composition, which can translate into wines with excessive astringency. The addition of mannoproteins (MP) to wine has been proposed as a way of mitigating this problem, since some studies have shown that MPs can modulate wine astringency. However, the mechanism underlying the astringency modulation effect of MPs is not well known and it seems to be dependent on the compositional and structural characteristics of the MP.