Estimation of plant hydraulics of grapevine in various «terroirs» in the Canton of Vaud (Switzerland)

AIM: Proanthocyanidins are responsible in an important way for positive aspects in wines, such as body and color stability in red wines, but they are also responsible for sensory characteristics that can be negative for their quality when found in excessive concentrations.

Eleven wine-growing sites are now on the UNESCO World Heritage List as Cultural Landscapes. If the viticultural character of these sites constitutes the main argument for the demonstration of their heritage value, the terroir and its biophysical and environmental characteristics tend however to appear in a minor mode compared to the aesthetic and cultural dimensions. In other words, the “specific characteristics of the soil, topography, climate, landscape and biodiversity” (OIV definition) are most often used as descriptive elements in the presentation of the sites, but it is more the aesthetic, historical,

Malbec grapes have been cultivated for 150 years in Argentina. In the last 20 years Argentinian Malbec wines have emerged as a commercial boom worldwide.

Characterize taste and mouthfeel properties of grapes elicited by the phenolic fraction (PF) of grape berries and establish relationships with chemical variables. METHODS: As many as 31 diverse grape lots of Tempranillo Tinto and Garnacha Tinta from three different regions were harvested. Grapes were destemmed and macerated in 15% of ethanol for one week and extracts were submitted to solid phase extraction. The recovered polyphenolic fraction was reconstituted in wine model and characterized by a panel of 21 wine experts employing a list of 23 taste and mouthfeel-related attributes following a rate-k-attributes methodology. RESULTS: Six significant attributes among the 31 samples differed based on ANOVA results: “dry”, “coarse”, “bitter”, “dry on tongue”, “sticky” and “watery”. PCA with VARIMAX algorithm was calculated.

Although there are detailed studies on the microbiota of Vitis vinifera L. grapes, little is known about the diversity of yeast communities present in non-vinifera Vitis ecosystems (i.e., grapes and spontaneously fermenting grape musts). Potentially scientific and/or enological valuable yeast strains from these non-vinifera Vitis ecosystems might never be isolated from V. vinifera L. Using a standard culture-dependent strategy, we studied the population of yeast species during initial stages of spontaneous fermentation of V. labrusca L. (Isabella) grape musts. Rare non-Saccharomyces yeast species were recognized in Isabella, including Candida azymoides, Pichia cecembensis, Candida californica, Candida bentonensis, Issatchenkia hanoiensis and Candida apicola.