Les paysages viticoles des régions Vale Dos Vinhedos et Monte Belo (Brésil), un lien avec l’Etrurie

The alteration in the rainfall pattern and the increase in the temperatures associated to global climate change are already affecting wine production in many viticultural regions all around the world (1). In fact, grapes are nowadays ripening earlier from a technological point of view than in the past, but they are not necessarily mature from a phenolic point of view. Consequently, the wines made from these grapes can be unbalanced or show high alcohol content. Dramatic shifts in viticultural areas are currently being projected for the future (2).

AIM: Volatile compounds joint to aromatic precursors form the aroma of grape must that will provide a characteristic aroma to the wine.

Maturation of wine on lees (often referred as sur lie) is a common practice applied by many winemakers around the world. In the past this method was applied mainly on white and/or sparkling wine production but recently also to red wine production. In our experiment, we matured red wine on wine lees of two origins: a) Light wine lees, collected after the completion of the alcoholic fermentation, b) Heavy lees, collected after the completion of the malolactic fermentation. The lees were free of off-odors and were added in the red wine in percentage 3% and 8%, simulating common winemaking addition. The maturation lasted in total six months and samples were collected for analysis after one, three and six months. During storage the lees were stirred.

Pesticide residues in Austrian wines have so far been poorly documented. In 250 wines, 33 grape musts and 45 musts in fermentation, no limit values were exceeded, but in some cases high lev-els (>0.100 mg/l) of single residues were found, meaning that a reduction of these levels before bottling could make sense. In the course of this study, a white and a red wine were spiked with a mix of 23 pesticide residues from the group of fungicides (including botryticides), herbicides and insecticides. The influence of the following treatments on residue concentrations and volatile profiles were investigated: two activated charcoal products, a bentonite clay, two commer-cial mixed fining agents made of bentonite and charcoal, two yeast cell wall products, and a plant fiber-based novel filter additive. The results of this study show that all the agents tested reduced both residues and aromavolatile compounds in wine, with activated charcoal having the strongest effect and bentonite the weakest. The mixed agents and yeast wall products showed less aroma losses than charcoal products, but also lower residue reduction. Plant fibers showed good reduction of pesticides with moderate aroma damage, but these results need to be con-firmed under practical conditions.

According to OIV reports, annual world wine consumption fluctuated around 240-245 mln hL over the past decade. The general market globalization has led to the situation when almost half of the consumed wine is exported to other countries. Of this volume, more than 60 mln hL are bottled still and sparkling wines.