Sardinia terroir and Cannonau: a zoning approach to discover an ancient tradition

A survey has been conducted on 32 students and 25 former students of 28 nationalities of an international master course training executives of the international Wine sector.

The production of high-quality wines requires the use of high-quality grapes. Some compounds originating from grapes may negatively influence the odour and flavour of the resulting wine in their original form or as precursors for off-odours and –flavours. Therefore, a rapid evaluation of the grapes directly upon receival at the winery is advantageous. Up to now, grape aroma is mainly evaluated by tasting, however, this leads to subjective results. The use of near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy allows a rapid, objective and destruction-free analysis without previous sample preparation. Moreover, the measurement can be integrated into an existing process without additional sampling.

45 non irrigated vineyards distributed in the DO (Denomination) Pla i Llevant de Mallorca and the DO Binissalem Mallorca were used to investigate the characteristics of production and quality and their relationships certain environmental factors and cultural practices. The grape varieties investigated are autochthonous to the island of Mallorca, Manto Negro and Callet as red and Prensal Blanc as white. All plants were measured for four consecutive years in the main production and quality parameters. Among the environmental factors, the type of soil has been studied, more specifically its water retention capacity, the planting density, the age of the vineyard and the level of viral infection. The presence or absence of virus seems to have no effect on any component studied in the varieties studied. For the white variety Prensal Blanc age is negatively correlated with production and the number of bunches, nevertheless it does not cause any effect on the required quality parameters. However, for the red varieties Callet and Manto Negro, the age of the plantation is the variable that best correlates with the quality parameters, therefore the old vines should be the object of preservation by the viticulturists and winemakers in order to guarantee its contribution to the quality of the wines made with these varieties.

Microbial ecosystems are primary drivers of viticultural, oenological and other cellar-related processes
such as wastewater treatment. Metagenomic datasets have broadly mapped the vast microbial species
diversity of many of the relevant ecological niches within the broader wine environment, from vineyard
soils to plants and grapes to fermentation. The data highlight that species identities and diversity
significantly impact agronomic performance of vineyards as well as wine quality, but the complexity
of these systems and of microbial growth dynamics has defeated attempts to offer actionable
tools to guide or predict specific outcomes of ecosystem-based interventions.

L’A.O.C. Muscat de Rivesaltes prévoit l’utilisation de 2 cépages Muscats : le Muscat à petits grains (M.P.G) et le Muscat d’Alexandrie (M.A).