Observed climatic trends in South African wine regions and potential implications for viticulture

Aim: This study aimed to benchmark the chemical and sensory consequences of grapevine exposure to smoke, by comparing: (i) the concentration of volatile phenols and volatile phenol glycosides in control and smoke-affected grapes from different cultivars and different wine regions; and (ii) the chemical and sensory profiles of wines made from control and smoke-affected grapes, from different cultivars.  

Wine quality maintenance during the storage is a fundamental aspect for both wine producers and consumers. Nowadays, great attention has been given to the light effect

In the actual scenario of climate change, optimization of water usage is becoming critical in sustainable viticulture. Most of the current approaches to assess grapevine water status and drive irrigation scheduling are either destructive, time and labour consuming and monitor a small, limited number of plants. This work presents a novel methodology using a contactless, miniaturized, low-cost NIR spectrometer to monitor the vineyard water status variability from a moving vehicle, to provide reliable information towards precision irrigation.

Three compounds, 3-mercaptohexanol (3MH), 3-mercaptohexyl-acetate (3MHA) and 4-mercapto-4-methylpentan-2-one (4MMP), also known as varietal thiols, have been identified to contribute positively to wine aroma and are responsible for the distinct gooseberry, grapefruit, guava and box tree character found in Sauvignon blanc wines. Certain volatile thiol compounds though, can cause off-aromas of onion, garlic, rubber and rotten egg, this group of molecules is known as reductive sulphur compounds (RSC). This study looks into how the addition of sulphur-compounds to Sauvignon blanc juice contributes to the varietal thiol (3MH and 3MHA) concentration and reductive sulphur compound concentration in South African Sauvignon blanc wine.

Grape stalks are a byproduct of the winemaking process and represent a valuable and inexpensive source of bioactive compounds. While their direct use in whole bunch fermentation is known, the majority of grape stalks are discarded, posing environmental and economic challenges.