Terroir Hesse – Soil determines wine style

Brettanomyces bruxellensis is found in various ecological niches, but particularly in fermentative processes: beer, kombucha, cider and wine. In the oenological sector, this yeast is undesirable, as it can produce ethyl phenols, thus altering wine quality. These compounds are characterized by stable or horse-sweat aromas, unpleasant for consumers.

Among the different strategies to cope with the negative impacts of climate change on viticulture, the exploitation of genetic diversity is one of the most promising to adapt to new conditions and maintain wine production and quality. One of the biggest concerns in the context of climate change is to improve water use efficiency (WUE). In this way, the use of genotypes that present a better response to drought and high WUE is a key issue. In this work, physiological performance analysis was conducted to compare the water deficit stress (WDS) responses of local and widespread grapevines cultivars. Leaf gas exchange, water use efficiency (WUE) at different levels (leaf and long-term WUE (∆13C)), leaf osmotic adjustment and other water relations parameters were determined in plants under well-watered and WDS conditions alongside assessment of the levels of foliar hormones concentrations. Results denote that local cultivars displayed better physiological performance under WDS as compared to the widely-distributed ones. he results corroborate the hypothesis that better stomatal control allows increasing leaf WUE under drought as occurred in the local Callet cv.; but the minority local cultivar Escursac cv. showed high WUE under both treatments. In this case, high WUE can be related to maintaining higher photosynthetic activity under drought. The different mechanisms underlying the better performance under WDS and high WUE of minority local cultivars are discussed.

UV-Visible spectroscopy in conjunction with chemometrics, was successfully applied to objectively differentiate sparkling wine press juice fractions of Pinot noir. Two measurements methods were applied: reflectance using a fibre optic probe in-line and transmission using a benchtop spectrophotometer.

The persistence of effervescence and foam collar during a Champagne or sparkling wine tasting constitute one, among others, specific consumer preference for these products. Many different factors related to the product or to the tasting conditions might influence their behavior in the glass

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