Radiative and thermal effects on fruit ripening induced by differences in soil colour

Climate changes and the trend towards organic and more sustainable winemaking highlighted the need to use biological methodologies. The reduction in the use of SO2, the need of the reduction of ethanol content of wines and the now need to reduce or eliminate chemical phytosanitary products, have prompted the search for alternative practices.

Bottle ageing is considered essential for most premium red wine production. An important aim of bottle ageing of wine is to achieve a balance between the oxidative and reductive development. This is typically evaluated by the accumulation of aldehyde compounds (causing oxidative off-flavour) and sulfur-containing compounds (causing reductive off-flavour) in the wine [1]

“The Human being has an excellent ability to detect and discriminate odors but typically has great difficulty in identifying specific odorants”(1). Furthermore, “from a cognitive point of view the mechanism used to judge wines is closer to pattern recognition than descriptive analysis.” Therefore, when one wants to reveal the volatile “wine-like feature” pattern recognition techniques are required. Sensomics is one of the most recent “omics”, i.e. a holistic perspective of a complex system, which deals with the description of substances originated from microorganism metabolism that are “active” to human senses (2). Depicting the relevant volatile fraction in wines has been an ongoing task in recent decades to which several research groups have allocated important resources. The most common strategy has been the “target approach” in order to identify the “key odorants” for a given wine varietal.

Valpolicella is a famous wine producing region in the province of Verona owing its fame above all to the production of two Protected Designation of Origins (PDOs) withered wines: Amarone and Recioto. In recent years, however, the wineries have been interested in the enhancement and qualitative increase of another PDO, Valpolicella Superiore. All the Valpolicella PDOs wines are produced with a unique grape blend, mainly Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella and a range of other minor varieties.From 2019 Valpolicella product regulation has changed the grape proportion of the blend allowing new composition parameters of wines. For this reason, studying the volatile chemical profiles to support wine makers in the effort to produce high quality wines represents a field of great interest.

The spotted lanternfly (SLF; Lycorma delicatula) is a phloem-feeding polyphagous insect invasive to the Eastern U.S.. Since its first detection in Pennsylvania (U.S.) in 2014, large infestations and economic damage (e.g., decreased yield, vine decline, greater pesticide use) have been reported in an increasing number of vineyards, threatening the sustainability and growth of the wine industry in infested regions. Our team has been investigating the impacts of SLF phloem-feeding on physiological processes, fruit production, juice, and wine composition of different grape cultivars, and also evaluated if the SLF can transmit important grapevine pathogens. In addition, we are working closely with stakeholders to better enumerate the economic damage caused by this pest. These findings will provide relevant information to grape and wine producers to help identify action thresholds and develop a more targeted integrated pest management program.