Climate influence on the grapevine phenology and anthocyanins content in wines from the Skopje vineyard area, Republic of Macedonia

The physical factors that influence the grape ripening include elevation, slope, aspect, potential global radiation, sun hours and soil type of the vineyards.

Over the last decade, much attention has been paid on the oxidative susceptibility of white wines, given its key role in determining their ageing potential.

Dating back to the early domestication period of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.), expansion of human activity led to the creation of thousands of modern day genotypes that serve multiple purposes such as table and wine consumption. They also encompass a strong phenotypic diversity. Presently, viticulture faces various challenges, which include threatening climatic change scenarios and an historical track record of genetic erosion. Paritularly with regards to wine varieties, there is a pressing need to characterize the extant genetic diversity of modern varieties, as a means to delvier knowledge-based solutions under a rapidly evolving scenario, that may enable improved yields and profiles, resistance to pathogens, and increased resilience to climate change.

The multi-annual study of the International Genetic Bank of the Grape Vine has shown that red varieties are enough, but the red varieties that produce high-quality red wine are minimal.

Identification of specific analytical fingerprints associated to grape variety, origin, or vintage is of great interest for wine producers, regulatory agencies, and consumers. However, assessing such varietal fingerprint is complex, time consuming, and requires expensive analytical techniques. Voltammetry is a fast, cheap, and user-friendly analytical tool that has been used to investigate and measure wine phenolics.