The grapevine single-berry clock, practical tools and outcomes 

Nowadays, the entire viticultural and enological process is wisely thought out according to the style of wine to be produced and the local climatic conditions. Acquiring the approach of a technical management route specific for wine production remains a complex learning process for students. To enhance such learning, The Ecole d’Ingénieurs de PURPAN (PURPAN), an engineering school located in Toulouse southwest France, has recently developed Creativini, a collaborative card game in English made of 150 cards spread into 14 batches. Students in groups of 3 to 6 must design a technical production route, from plant material to bottling.

The content of this communication arises from the deliberations of a working group mandated within the framework of the INRA-INAO 2000-2003 research convention, which brought together INAO representatives and researchers who had worked on AOCs or PGIs, in disciplines from the sphere of the humanities (consumer science, marketing, rural development) and biotechnical sciences (agronomy, animal production science, technology, biochemistry).

Limited information is available on grape wall-derived polymeric structure/composition and how this changes during fermentation. Commercial winemaking operations use enzymes that target the polysaccharide-rich polymers of the cell walls of grape tissues to clarify musts and extract pigments during the fermentations. In this study we have assessed changes in polysaccharide composition/ turnover throughout the winemaking process by applying recently developed cell wall profiling approaches to both wine and pomace polysaccharides. The methods included gas chromatography for monosaccharide composition (GC-MS), infra-red (IR) spectroscopy and comprehensive microarray polymer profiling
(CoMPP) using cell wall probes.

In recent years, Mediterranean regions are being affected by marked climate changes, primarily characterized by reduced precipitation, greater concurrence of temperature extremes and drought during the growing season, and increased inter-annual variability in temperatures and rainfall. Generally, high-quality red wines need moderate water deficit. Hence, irrigation may be needed to avoid severe vine water stress occurring in some vintages and soils with low holding capacity. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effects of soil recharge irrigation in pre-sprouting and summer irrigation every week (30 % ETO) from the pea size state until the end of ripening (RP) compared to exclusively summer irrigation every week (R) in the same way that RP, on must volatile composition at harvest.

Oak wood has a significant impact on the chemical composition of wine, leading to transformations that influence its organoleptic properties, such as its aroma, structure, astringency, bitterness and color. Among the main extractible non-volatile polyphenol compounds released from oak wood, the ellagitannins are found [1].