Agronomical assessment of a vine « terroir » map: first results in the « AOC » Minervois region

There is an urgent need to develop protective measures for grapevines in historically significant dry-farming vineyards, particularly on Mediterranean islands.

AIM: Red grape varieties are characterized by different phenolic contents (prominently tannins and anthocyanins) found in skins and seeds.

Hydrogen sulfide and methanethiol are recognised as two of the most significant contributors to reductive off-flavours in wine.

Carbonic Maceration (CM) winemaking is typically used in different European regions. But It is paradoxical that being a traditional processing system and widely used in many wineries, some of the phenomena that take place and the parameters that characterize them are barely known. In this vinification system the intact grape clusters are placed in a carbon dioxide (CO2) enriched medium, and they immediately change from a respiratory metabolism to an anaerobic fermentative metabolism called intracellular fermentation, which is carried out by grape enzymes. But some grapes located in the lower zone of the tank are crushed by the weight of the ones above and release must, which is fermented by yeasts.

La delimitación y caracterización de zonas vitícolas plantea en España problemas específicos no sólo por las características peculiares del territorio sino también por el tamaño