Adaptation to soil and climate through the choice of plant material

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.

Aim‐ Rootstocks provide protection against soil borne pests and are a powerful tool to manipulate growth, fruit composition and wine quality attributes

“Terroir” has been acknowledged as an important factor in wine quality
and style. It can be defined as an interaction between climate, soil, vine (cultivar, rootstock) and human
factors such as viticultural and enological techniques. Soil and climate are the two components of the “Terroir” with an important role on the vine development and berries ripening. The present study is focused on the effects of the weather conditions and the soil characteristics on the phenological and berries ripening dynamics of the “Touriga Nacional” in Dão region.

Red wines constitute the majority of the wines produced in Bordeaux. All along the winemaking process, many microorganisms may develop in wine. A lot of them are useful but a common defect found in wine is linked to the development of Brettanomyces bruxellensis, a yeast that produces volatile phenols. These molecules are responsible for an unwanted sensorial defect described as similar to “horse sweat”, “burnt plastic” or “leather”. It has been shown that while some wines are very permissive and easily contaminated, others are pretty resistant to Brettanomyces development. However, common parameters such as pH, alcohol or sugars composition cannot fully explain the differences observed in wine permissiveness.

AIM: We investigated the effect of soil texture on grapevine response to water stress, leaf abscisic acid concentration and berry quality, in two adjacent vineyards located in the renewed Cannubi hill of Barolo (Langhe area, CN, North-West Italy).