The relationship of wine store customers with the areas of production, considering provenance and tourism

Aging on lees (AOL) has been used for wine aging for a long time, thanks to its ability to modify wine composition, improving sensory characteristics and stability. However, the prolonged contact with fermentation lees may increase the risk of developing sensory defects, due to the growth of unwanted microorganisms. Furthermore, AOL requires a large amount of work to manage bâtonnage and for topping up the barrels, significantly increasing production costs.

Extreme climatic events, such as prolonged drought followed by intense flooding, increasingly impact viticulture, affecting vine physiology, productivity, and grape composition.

High-volume mass-market white wines production method by means of harvest-deferred fermentation from desulphited musts allows an efficient business management by avoiding the seasonality in wine sector.

Climate change and harvest date decisions have led to the evolution of must quality over the last decades. Increases in must sugar concentrations are among the most obvious consequences, quantitatively. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a robust and acid tolerant organism. These properties, its sugar to ethanol conversion rate and ethanol tolerance make it the ideal production organism for wine fermentations. Unfortunately, high sugar concentrations may affect S. cerevisiae and lead to growth inhibition or yeast lysis, and cause sluggish or stuck fermentations. Even sublethal conditions cause a hyperosmotic stress response in S. cerevisiae which leads to increased formation of fermentation by-products, including acetic acid, which may exceed legal limits in some wines.

Development of the indigenous microflora is not insignificant on the wine quality. S. cerevisiae indigenous strains are low tolerant to ethanol.