The use of viticultural and oenological performance of grapevines to identify terroirs: the example of Sauvignon blanc in Stellenbosch

While SO2 is one of the oldest and widest additive used in enology for its well-known antioxidant, anti-laccase and antimicrobial properties, it can cause health problems in some individuals.

The interaction between cultivar and growing environment is the base of wine quality and typicality. In recent time the behaviour of different clones within the same cultivar became another fundamental factor influencing the enological result. In order to clarify cultivar/clone/environment relations, a trial was carried out in 2008 studying the performances of three clones of ‘Nebbiolo’, grown in different environments: south-east Piedmont (hilly and characterized by a loamy and alkaline soil) and north-east Piedmont (a plain area characterized by a sandy and acidic soil).

Pruning vine-shoots are a viticulture waste that have been traditionally poorly exploited in relation to its chemical minority composition related to phenolic and volatile compounds. In this line, toasted vine-shoots supposes a proposal of enological tool to use to modulate the chemical and sensorial profile of wines. From a phenolic point of view, when vine-shoots are used during winemaking mainly influence to increase the flavanols and stilbenes content, mostly trans-resveratrol, as also an increasing in the sweet tannins and decreasing the green character and total anthocyanins, changing the violet for garnet colour.

The cultivation of grapes, can be accomplished with the use of different systems and practices of agricultural management, the choice of the system to be followed in the vineyard, depends on the conditions of available resources, these being: natural, economic, social, cultural and territorial. As well, it is relevant to know the characteristics of the soil of the vineyard. In the last decade, has been recurrent use of agricultural practices which date back to milinares traditions, with the aim of promoting a recovery of soil and lead the management of cultivation with less damage to the ecosystem. The study here, aimed to quantify the environmental impacts caused in the use of nutrients in conventional tillage and of grapes in the biodynamic agricultural properties in the state of Rio Grande do Sul- Brazil.

Within the DOCa Rioja three main production areas are differentiated: Rioja Alta (RA), Rioja Alavesa (RAv) and Rioja Oriental (RO). They are three diverse territories with particular characteristics that are claimed to give rise to differentiated profiles. The present work aims at evaluating the sensory diversity of young commercial red wines in these three subregions. Therefore 30 young red wines (mainly Tempranillo and vintage 2021), ten from each subregion, were sensory described following a non-verbal free sorting task and a verbal free comment task by 32 well-established Rioja winemakers.