VITOUR – The European World Heritage Vineyards

Oak is the main material used in cooperage for making barrels and wood chips destined to aged spirits and wines. Quercus alba L., Quercus petraea L. and Quercus robur L. are three of the most commonly used oak species in cooperage companies.

Aroma and mouthfeel cues are the main characteristics defining red wine quality. During wine tasting, perceptual and physical-chemical phenomena leading to mutual interactions between volatiles and non-volatiles sensory active compounds, can occur. Aroma perception depends on the release of volatiles from wine, that is affected by wine constituents present in the medium (Pittari et al. 2021; Lyu et al. 2021). Our aim was to evaluate the effect of the non-volatile wine matrix composition (polyphenols, PPh) on the release and perception of red wine aromas by an experiment of matrix enrichment.

Wine-grapes in the Willamette Valley, Oregon, are grown on three major soil parent materials: volcanic, marine sediments, and loess/volcanic.

Winegrape cultivars are particularly sensitive to temperature and recent changes in climate have advanced the onset of berry ripening, resulting in unbalanced fruit composition at harvest.

Wine quality is influenced by grape maturity, typically monitored by measuring sugar content and acidity.