Main viticultural soils in Castilla – La Mancha (Spain)

Aroma diversity is one of the most important features in the expression of the varietal and geographic identity and sensory uniqueness of a wine. Italy has one of the largest ampelographic heritages of the world, with more than five hundred different varieties. Among them, many are used for the production of dry still white wines, many classified as Protected Designation of Origins and therefore produced in specific geographical areas with well-defined grape varieties. Chemical and sensory characteristics of the aroma of these wines have never been systematically studied, and the relative diversity has never been described and classified.

Mousy off-flavor is one of the defects of microbial origin in wine. It is described as a particularly unpleasant defect reminiscent of rodent urine (a “dirty mouse cage”), and grilled foods such as popcorn, rice, crackers, and bread crust. Prior to the 2010s, mousiness was very uncommon but it has been becoming more frequent in recent years. It is often associated with an increase in pH as well as certain oenological practices, which tend to significantly decrease the use of sulfur dioxide.

It seems implausible that the geographical development of the vineyards could have been affected by a shift in the positions of the Earth’continents

A set of Syrah plots covering a wide range of terroirs distributed in the vineyards of the Rhone Valley and the Mediterranean South is examined through their oenological and sensory characteristics. The multidimensional analysis of data leads to the following groupings: (1) A group of unstructured wines with a simple aromatic profile dominated by fruity-floral notes; they come from plots where the ripening conditions have been disturbed by unfavorable climatic conditions, or an excess harvest.

Aims: The aims of this study were: (1) to compute recent-past thermal conditions over European vineyards, using state-of-the art bioclimatic indices: chilling portions and growing degree hours; (2) to compute future changes of these thermal conditions using a large ensemble of high-resolution climate models.