Sensory and chemical phenotyping of wines from a F1 grapevine population

The Alto Douro Wine Region (ADWR) was classified a world heritage site, specifically as a cultural landscape, by UNESCO, in 2001. The well known “Porto Wine” and other high quality wines are produced in the Douro region. As an attraction and touristic site, the cultural site has to meet the needs of more demanding visitors and to compete with a growing number of cultural sites, also classified by UNESCO. To achieve this goal, landscape managers and public authorities have much to profit from knowing and understanding visitors’ preferences regarding the attributes associated to its outstanding universal value.

The selection, characterization, and recruitment of autochthonous yeast strains to drive the alcoholic fermentation process is a highly researched practice because it allows the differentiation of the organoleptic properties of wines, assuring process standardization, reducing fermentation times and improving the quality and safety of the final products [1, 2]. Sparkling wines are “special wines” obtained by secondary fermentation of the base wine. ​In the traditional method (Champenoise method), the re-fermentation takes place in the bottle after the addition to the base wine of the so-called tirage solution. This step, also known as prise de mousse, is followed by an aging period characterized by the release of compounds from the yeast cells that affect the organoleptic properties of the final product. The use of autochthonous yeasts as starter cultures for secondary fermentation is one of the recent innovations proposed to enhance and differentiate these wines’ sensory quality [3,4]. Apulia is the second Italian wine-producing region, and its productive chain is now going through a qualitative evolution by implementing the employment of innovative approaches to exalt the peculiar properties of regional wines.

The tartaric stabilization of wines before bottling to avoid the precipitation of tartaric acid salts is an important and common step during wine production. The presence of precipitated salt crystals in bottle wines is detrimental for their quality and even a legal issue in some countries. Cold stabilization is the most common stabilization treatment. Although it has been shown to be effective, it has some significant disadvantages, mainly regarding losses of color and aromas and its high cost. Therefore, other products and methodologies are being introduced in the wineries for the replacement of this process. Some of these new techniques involve the reduction of the ions causing the insolubilization of tartaric acid while other are based in the formation of protective colloids or the inhibition of the crystallization of salts. In this study, white, rosé and red wines have been treated with carboxymethylcellulose, potassium polyaspartate and an ion exchange resin. The tartaric stability of the wines, together with the oenological, chromatic and sensory characteristics were studied after the wines had been stored during one year in the bottle. The results indicate that the use of carboxymethyl cellulose and potassium polyaspartate maintained the best the sensory and chromatic characteristics and the wine stability of the wines in comparison with an untreated control wine.

Challenging conditions created by limited water supply and changes in the climate require an understanding of the physiological status of table grapes along the whole value chain. This is critical to develop tools for regulatory management of growth balances and grape quality. This study aimed to determine the impact of different amounts of water and an altered micro-climate (complete covering of vineyards with plastic) on the physiological reaction of the grapevine during the growth season.

Climate change has become a major challenge for grape and wine production around the world