Currently, to consistently ensure the maintenance of a wine-style while benefiting from the utmost rigor made possible by the winemaking process, the composition of the wine blend is made using sensory control. This is performed after the wine is made with no real possibility of deterministic intervention.
Insufficient acidity in grapes from warm climates/vintages is commonly corrected through addition of tartaric acid during vinification, and less so with other organic acids. An alternative approach involves bio-acidification with the yeast Lachancea thermotolerans (LT) via lactic acid production during fermentation.
Vitamins are major compounds, involved in several prime yeast metabolic pathways. Yet, their significance in oenology has remained mostly unexplored for several decades and our current knowledge on the matter still remaining obscure to this day. While the vitaminic contents of grape musts have been approached in these ancient investigation
The bioprotection of musts or grapes is a strategy for limiting sulfiting during winemaking and more specifically at pre-fermentative step. The most preconized yeasts in bioprotection mainly belong to Metschnikowia pulcherrima and Torulaspora delbrueckii species. While previous studies have demonstrated that bioprotectant non-Saccharomyces strains were able to protect musts and wines against microbial spoilage as well as sulfites, they cannot protect must against oxidation which appears to be the main limit of this practice.
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.
Nowadays, winemaking is dealing with great challenges, notably climate change, disease resistance and low pesticide inputs, desire for more sustainable agricultural productions and permanent changing of consumer preference. Trying to propose practice improvements, scientists are exploring vine hybridization a paradoxically old but still actual way to take up such challenges
Considerable advances have been made in the chemical characterization of wine metabolites through its holistic study using both targeted and untargeted metabolomics approach. The metabolite pool is subject to an intense molecular dialogue which reinforces the wine complexity even after bottling.
The sporadic oxidation of white wines remains an open question, making wine shelf life a subjective debate. Through a multidisciplinary synoptic approach performed as a remarkable case study on aged bottles of white wine, this work unraveled a yet unexplored route for uncontrolled oxidation.
Amarone is an Italian red wine produced in the Valpolicella area, in north-eastern Italy. Due to its elaboration with withered grapes, Amarone is a rather unique example of dry red wine. However, there is very limited data so far concerning the volatile composition of commercial Amarone wines, which also undergo a cask aging of 2-4 years before release.
Following its approval in 2013 by Agroscope, Divico became the first interspecific grape variety in Switzerland with high resistance to downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola) and grey rot (Botrytis cinerea), and medium resistance to powdery mildew (Uncinula nectator). Extremely riche in color, Divico grapes showed great enological potential to different styles of wine. Quickly, many wine growers were interested in planting this promising variety. Many of its potential are to be explored in the coming years.
Sulfites (SO2) addition during winemaking is a widespread practice worldwide. This addition is realized at different steps of the winemaking due to the antimicrobial and antioxidant capacity of SO2. In a context of understanding white wines oxidative stability, knowledge about the impact of SO2 on the wine molecular diversity, especially compounds involved in the antioxidant capacity of wine, appears to be very important. In recent years, some studies have shown that SO2 can react with a large number of wine compounds resulting in the formation of numerous adducts. The diversity of compounds involved is important including in particular pyruvic acid, 2-keto-glutaric acid, glyceraldehyde, sugar, phenolics compounds but also amino acids or peptides. Moreover Roullier-Gall et al. have shown using FT-ICR-MS analysis that the molecular composition of wines remains impacted by addition of SO2 to the must (0, 4 and 8 g/hL SO2), several years after winemaking. Indeed, wines made from protected must (8g/hL SO2) contain a larger diversity of CHOS and CHONS compounds than wines made from unprotected must (0 g/hL SO2). The study of the impact of glutathione addition on the sensory oxidative stability has further shown that CHOS and CHONS compounds (amino acids, aromatic compounds and peptides) are markers of the antioxidant metabolome of white wines. This suggests that CHOS and CHONS compounds arise from SO2 adducts formation but also from a protecting effect of SO2 on the antioxidant metabolome of white wines.
Proseccco is a famous italian Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) produced in two regions: Veneto e Friuli Venezia Giulia, however, the production is mainly concentrated in the province of Treviso. These territories are characterized by plains with some hilly areas and temperate climate. Its Production regulation provides a minimum utilization of 85% of Glera grapes, a local white grape variety, and up to a maximum of 15% of other local and international varieties. Prosecco second fermentation takes place, according to the Charmat method, in autoclaves.
Alcoholic fermentation conducted by microorganism is a key step in the production of wine. In this process, interactions between different species of yeast are widely described but their mechanisms are still poorly understood. The interactions studied in wine are mainly between Saccharomyces and non-Saccharomyces species. Therefore, little is known about the mechanisms of interactions
Valpolicella is a famous wine producing region in the province of Verona owing its fame above all to the production of two Protected Designation of Origins (PDOs) withered wines: Amarone and Recioto. In recent years, however, the wineries have been interested in the enhancement and qualitative increase of another PDO, Valpolicella Superiore. All the Valpolicella PDOs wines are produced with a unique grape blend, mainly Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella and a range of other minor varieties.
Various molecular compounds are responsible for the complex mixture of fragrances that give wine its aroma. In particular, the ‘cooked fruit’ aroma found in red wines from hot and/or dry vintages or from the vinification of late harvested grapes has been intensively investigated in recent years. Lactones and especially γ-nonalactone were found to be responsible for the ‘cooked fruit’
The persistence of effervescence and foam collar during a Champagne or sparkling wine tasting constitute one, among others, specific consumer preference for these products. Many different factors related to the product or to the tasting conditions might influence their behavior in the glass
The purpose of this research was to study the interaction between oenotannins and wine matrix in order to design a targeted oenotannins addition for modulating the redox status of wine. It is in fact known that oenotannins can regulate the redox potential of musts and wines since they are electroactive substances (1).
Wine is the result of a complex biochemical process. From a microbiological point of view, the grape berry is characterised by a heterogeneous microbiota composed of different microorganisms (yeasts, bacteria and filamentous fungi) which will play a predominant role in the quality of the final product. At this level, yeasts play a predominant role in the chemistry of wine, as they