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

The new EU Green Deal aims to achieve GHG emissions reduction by at least 55% by 2030 and a climate neutral EU economy by 2050. REDWine concept will be realized through the establishment of an integrated Living Lab demonstrating the viability of the system at TRL 7. The Living Lab will be able to utilize 2 ton of fermentation off-gas/year (90% of total CO2 produced in the fermenter) and 80 m3 of liquid effluent (100% of the liquid effluent generated during fermenter washing) to produce 1 ton (dry weight) of Chlorella biomass/year. This biomass will be processed under a downstream extraction process to obtain added-value extracts and applied in food, cosmetic and agricultural end-products and to generate a new EcoWine. REDWine will focus on the recovery of off-gas from a 20.000L fermenter of red wine production existing in Adega Cooperativa de Palmela (ACP, located in Palmela, Portugal).

Wine lees are quantitatively the second most important wine by-product after grape stems and marc [1]. In order to recycle, distilleries recovered ethanol and tartaric acid contained in wine lees but yeast biomass is often unused. It has already been demonstrated that this yeast biomass could be upcycled to produce yeast extracts of interest for wine chemical stabilization [2]. In addition, it is well known that lees, during aging, release compounds that preserve wine from oxidation.

Aim: Through machine-learning modelling of plant water status from environmental characteristics, this work aims to develop a model able to predict grape phenolic composition in space and time to guide selective harvest decisions at the estate scale.

Climate emergency is going to affect the agricultural suistainability, wine grapes being probably one of the crops more sensitive to environmental constraints. In this context, mitigation strategies such as the revalorization of agricultural wastes are paramount to cope with the current challenges. The use of organic mulches has been reported to reduce soil water evaporation and improve vine water status, reduce soil erosion, and increase soil organic matter with little impact on berry quality. However, less is known about their effects on the microbiote of vineyards.

The microbial composition of the soil is an important factor to consider in viticulture, since its influence on the “terroir” and on the organoleptic properties of the wine have been demonstrated. Different agronomic techniques have the potential to modify the composition and functionality of the soil microbial community. Maintaining green covers is known to increase soil microbial diversity. The direct application of inoculum of beneficial microorganisms to the soil has also been used to increase their abundance. However, the environmental conditions of each site seem to have a determining weight in the result of these practices. In this study, we compared the effect on the microbial community of a cover crop with legumes in autumn and the inoculation of grapevines with commercial inoculum bases on Rhizophagus irregularis and Funeliformis mosseae in the previous spring. The study has been carried out in a vineyard in Binissalem, Mallorca, Spain. After applying the treatments, we will analyze the soil microbial communities using the data obtained from Illumina amplification of soil DNA from the 16S and ITS regions to analyze bacteria and fungi community, respectively. In addition, we will record the physicochemical characteristics of the soil at each sampling point. The result showed that agronomic management, in the short term, has less influence than soil characteristics on the composition of the soil microbiome. With these results, we can conclude that in a vineyard, agricultural techniques should focus on improving the characteristics of the soil to improve the biodiversity of the soil microbiota.