Vineyards and grape varieties: what is going on in wine professional and consumer minds?

The evolution of wine during bottle ageing has been of great interest to ensure consistent quality over time. While the role of wine closures on the amount of oxygen is well-known [1], closures could also play other roles such as the scalping phenomenon of flavour compounds. Flavour scalping has been described as the sorption of flavour compounds by the packaging material, which could result in losses of flavour intensity. It has been reported in the literature that volatile sulphur compounds (VSC) can be scalped on wine closures depending on the type of closure (traditional and agglomerated cork, screw-cap, synthetic [2]).

Low temperatures are required for the acquisition and maintenance of bud cold tolerance, which are necessary for grapevines to survive freezing temperatures in winter.

Zoning analysis determine homogeneous areas principally from the point of view of the medium, giving as a result a map which cartographic units synthesize the relations between the edaphic factors; morphological factors of the soil and climatic factors

ln 1997, twenty six cultivation sites of cv. Muscat of Alexandria different for pedological conditions, altitude and exposition were selected through ail Pantelleria isle. ln each site, described and classified according to USDA Soil Taxonony and FAO Soil Classification methods, grapes, collected at technological ripening, were microvinificated, following a standard procedure which allowed to obtain the naturally sweet wine DOC Moscato di Pantelleria. Wines, five months after vinification, were analysed by gaschromatography.

In the pursuit of increasing sustainability, climate change resiliency and independence of synthetic pesticides in agriculture, the interest of consumers and producers in organic and biodynamic farming is steadily increasing. This is in particular the case for the vitivinicultural industry in Europe, where more and more producers are converting from organic to biodynamic farming. However, clear scientific evidence showing that biodynamic farming improves vine physiology, vine stress resilience, berry or wine quality, or is more sustainable for the environment is still lacking although this issue has been addressed by several research teams worldwide.