Terroir aspects in development of quality of Egri bikavér

Various molecular compounds are responsible for the complex mixture of fragrances that give wine its aroma. In particular, the ‘cooked fruit’ aroma found in red wines from hot and/or dry vintages or from the vinification of late harvested grapes has been intensively investigated in recent years. Lactones and especially γ-nonalactone were found to be responsible for the ‘cooked fruit’

The Maillard reaction (MR) is a non-enzymatic reaction between reducing sugars and amino acids, resulting in the production of volatile and flavour-active compounds.

New Plant Breeding Techniques (NPBTs) have arisen with the objective of surmounting the constraints inherent in conventional breeding methodologies, thereby enhancing plant resilience against both biotic and abiotic stresses. To date the application of genome editing in grapevine is still limited by the necessity to overcome recalcitrance to produce embryogenic calli and to regenerate plants. In our studies, we developed a smart and versatile genetic transformation system carrying all the most promising features of different genome editing approaches. In specific, we joined the GRF-GIF expression to improve regeneration, the systemic movement of the editing transcripts through tRNA-like sequences (TLS) and the cisgenic-like approach to remove transgenes.

Climate change and harvest date decisions have led to the evolution of must quality over the last decades. Increases in must sugar concentrations are among the most obvious consequences, quantitatively. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a robust and acid tolerant organism. These properties, its sugar to ethanol conversion rate and ethanol tolerance make it the ideal production organism for wine fermentations. Unfortunately, high sugar concentrations may affect S. cerevisiae and lead to growth inhibition or yeast lysis, and cause sluggish or stuck fermentations. Even sublethal conditions cause a hyperosmotic stress response in S. cerevisiae which leads to increased formation of fermentation by-products, including acetic acid, which may exceed legal limits in some wines.

Happens too often in scientific papers to find the same harvesting period of a cultivar, although the used treatment influence a maturity curve of investigated thesis.
This inevitably leads to wrong conclusions when comparing the treatment effects, since obtained on maturity stages more or less far from those technologically correct.