The use of local knowledge relating to vineyard performance to identify viticultural terroirs in Stellenbosch and surrounds

The presence of undesirable compounds in wines, such as ota, biogenic amines and pesticides residues, affects wine quality and can cause health problems for the consumer. Additionally, an excess of tannins can produce an undesirable increase in the astringency and bitterness of the wine, so tannins are also a target for reduction. The main tool that a winemaker has to reduce their content in the wine is fining. However, some of the fining agents commonly used in the winery can cause allergies or even increase the protein content in the wine, increasing the turbidity.

Situated at the beginning of the 20th century on the territory of the Chablis municipality, delimited according to specialists of the time to plots of “kimmeridgian” origin, the vineyard producing Chablis

The use of grapevine genetic diversity is a way to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change on viticulture systems. Leaf epidermal flavonoids (including flavonols and anthocyanins) are involved in plant defense mechanisms against environmental stresses, like high temperatures or excessive solar radiation [1,2]. Among other factors, they modulate light absorption, which reduces photoinhibition processes in photosynthetic tissues [1]. Therefore, the identification of grapevine cultivars with an increased content on leaf epidermal flavonoids arises as a potential avenue to improve grapevine tolerance to some detrimental environmental stresses.

La région viticole de San Juan (Argentine) est marquée par des températures très élevées et des variations diurnes faibles. La valorisation de la connaissance de cet environnement et de ses interactions avec le fonctionnement de la vigne et le lien au vin passent par l’étude de ses terroirs et de leur caractérisation. Le point de départ de ce travail est l’étude des zones mésoclimatiques aptes à la culture de la vigne de la Province de San Juan et à la caractérisation des sols de cette même région. L’objectif est de définir le potentiel vitivinicole des zones considérées.

The wine spoilage yeast Brettanomyces bruxellensis can be found at several steps in the winemaking process due to its resistance to multiple stress conditions. Among the resistance strategies, one could be the formation of biofilm, a lifestyle known to enhance persistence of microorganisms. In this study, we propose to characterize biofilm of B. bruxellensis in wine, especially through several microscopic analyses.