Rootstocks of prestigious Bordeaux vineyards: implications on quality and yield

Il Nebbiolo, uno dei vitigni più rappresentativi della viticoltura piemontese. é caratterizzato da una maturazione tardiva, una elevata vigoria e una bassa fertilità basale. La sua popolazione inoltre presenta una tale variabilità morfologica che é consuetudine suddividere il vitigno in diverse sottovarietà (Lampia, Rosé, Michet, Balla per citare solo quelle dell’areale albese) ognuna con presunte distinte caratteristiche morfologiche e produttive.

The utilization of non-Saccharomyces yeasts in the wine industry has increased significantly in recent years. Alternative species need commonly be employed in combination with Saccharomyces cerevisiae to avoid stuck fermentation, or microbial spoilage. The employment of more than one yeast starter can lead to interactions between different species with an impact on the outcome of wine fermentation. Previous studies[1] demonstrated that S. cerevisiae elicits transcriptional responses with both shared and species-specific features in co-culture with other yeast species.

At least since de XIXth century, wine writers oppose quite often the wines from Gevrey-Chambertin to the wines from Chambolle-Musigny claiming that the former are more “masculine” (full-bodied, powerful tannins, leathery, rustic…) and the later more “feminine” (delicate, elegant, silky, flowery…).

Nowadays biodiversity loss is considered as a prior environmental issue. Agricultural landscapes are particularly concerned, mainly through the specialization and intensification of farming activities which lead, at a larger scale, to landscape simplification. Landscape management would be a good means to halt biodiversity loss, but large-scale studies remain rare. The life+ project BioDiVine aims to understand biodiversity dynamics and promote sustainable conservation actions at this scale in viticulture.

Canopy-management practices are applied in viticulture to improve berries composition and quality, having a great impact on primary and secondary grape metabolism. Among these techniques, cluster zone leaf removal (defoliation) is widely used to manage air circulation, temperature and light radiation of grape bunches and close environment. Since volatiles are quantitatively and qualitatively influenced by the degree of fruit ripeness, the level of solar exposure, and the thermal environment in which grapes ripen, leaf removal has been shown to affect volatile composition of grape berries [1].