Our colleague Juan Martín-Gómez from Universidad de Córdoba, Spain presented a fascinating research study on the ‘Sustainability of wine production and food systems in the Mediterranean region’ at the 3rd World Science & Wine Congress. This study focused on replacing traditional sun-drying methods in Mediterranean winemaking with controlled-airflow chamber-drying. This alternative technique improves the quality, phenolic content, and antioxidant properties of red grapes and blueberries. Furthermore, the post encourages researchers to consider submitting their work to a special joint issue. Because these issues are interdisciplinary, authors are given the flexibility to choose from several participating journals based on their research scope. The options include Foods; Sustainability; IJERPH; Agriculture.
Effects of Global Warming on Grapevine Berries Phenolic Compounds—A Review
As autumn heat reaches unprecedented levels, a groundbreaking study delves into the impact of climate change on phenolic compounds in grapevine berries. These findings challenge traditional winemaking norms, emphasizing the need for tailored approaches to combat climate challenges. The study advocates for a nuanced, “single case” perspective, recognizing the diversity of grapevine environments. Standardizing treatments across different cultivars, legislations, and regions is impractical. Instead, the focus has shifted to individual vineyards, embracing the concept of terroir, where unique natural, physical, and climatic conditions influence wine characteristics. This flexible approach encourages winegrowers and consumers to appreciate each vintage’s distinctiveness. By acknowledging and adapting to climatic changes, winemaking can evolve and foster innovative techniques and novel taste experiences. Resisting the urge for uniformity might simply unlock new dimensions in the wine world.
Ancient DNA analysis of winegrape seeds reveals genetic link between two modern varieties of red and white grapes and grape varieties cultivated some 1,100 years ago
One ancient seed was found to belong to the Syriki variety, still used to make red wine in Greece and Lebanon. Since winegrapes are usually named after their place of origin, it is quite possible that the name Syriki is derived from Nahal Sorek, an important riverbed in the Judean Hills. A second seed was identified as related to the Be’er variety of white winegrapes still growing in the sands of Palmachim on Israel’s southwestern Mediterranean seashore.
Perceiving and Adapting to Climate Change: Perspectives of Tuscan Wine-Producing Agritourism Owners
It is now widely accepted that climate change is having a profound impact on the weather systems around the world. These, in turn, have a considerable effect on two important elements of the Tuscan economy: wine production and tourism. This case study sought to explore the relationship between the perception of Tuscan wine-producing agritourism owners of the potentially abstract notion of climate change and their concrete experiences as entrepreneurs. While recognizing the difficulties they face from climate change as viticulturists, as agrotourism owners they welcome the longer seasons which enable them to open in the formerly barren shoulder seasons but struggle with last-minute cancellations due to unpredictable weather in the area.
Influence of viticultural practices on Danish cold-climate Solaris grapes and wines as studied by 1H NMR metabolomics
The present multidisciplinary study aimed at investigating the impact of water deficit, defoliation, and crop thinning on Solaris’ plant and fruit development as well as on the bulk metabolic composition of Solaris must and wines as measured by FT-IR and 1H NMR. Overall, the results show that, from an agronomical point of view, Solaris has a remarkable ability to tolerate and recover from water stress.
Investigating the most effective techniques to delay ripening through a meta-analytic approach
Several vineyard techniques have been proposed to delay grape maturity in light of the advanced maturation driven by increasingly frequent water and heat stress events that are detrimental to grape quality. These studies differ in terms of their experimental conditions, and in the present work we have attempted to summarize previous observations in a quantitative, data-driven systematic review. A meta-analysis of quantitative data gathered across 43 relevant studies revealed the overall significance of the proposed treatments and evaluated the impact of different experimental conditions on the outcome of antitranspirants, delayed pruning and late source limitation.
Pierce’s disease of grapevines caused by Xylella fastidiosa: what are the risks?
The vector-borne bacterium Xylella fastidiosa is responsible for Pierce’s disease (PD), a lethal grapevine disease that originated in the Americas. The international plant trade is expanding the geographic range of this pathogen, posing a new threat to viticulture worldwide. To assess the potential incidence of PD, the authors of this post built a dynamic epidemiological model based on the response of 36 grapevine varieties to the pathogen in inoculation assays and on the vectors’ distribution when this information is available.
Acceptance and rejection of nano-enabled viticulture
While the science of nanotechnology is indicated to offer improvements to conventional vineyard inputs and operations, its acceptability by potential users and consumers has an impact on the governance of nano-enabled agriculture. This governance takes place not just at the state level through regulation and policy, but also through corporate, and community sectors’ use of branding and narratives about nanotechnology and nano-based agrichemicals, and the (non)consumption of nano-enabled products. This post reports the results of a paper which investigated the technical and market acceptability, or governance, of nanotechnology by elucidating the attitudes of industry gatekeepers towards wines grown with nanotechnology. This necessarily informs the ‘market permissibility’ of such technologies and illuminates sensitivities, concerns, and consumer-based barriers to adoption.
Winemaking needs more science knowledge
Carbonic maceration (CM) consists in placing intact grape bunches into a sealed tank to have a natural or artificially created carbon dioxide atmosphere. No articles have been published on the comparison between CM and nitrogen maceration (NM). Therefore, the present study aimed at testing the use of alternative maceration technique (NM) in alternative to CM, to create the conditions of anoxia on the Gamay variety.
Agrobiodiversity dynamics in a French wine-growing region
Agrobiodiversity is a promising nature-based solution in the pursuit of sustainable agriculture. In wine-growing systems, commercial pressure and varietal regulations have narrowed agrobiodiversity in vineyards despite higher diversity being an important buffer against the effects of climate change. If drivers of grape diversity change are well-understood at national to global scales, little is known about the local, past or anticipated trajectories that drive agrobiodiversity dynamics depending on growers’ cultural values, practices and choices. We combined quantitative agricultural census data and qualitative ethnographic approaches to characterise changes in the diversity of grape varieties from 1960 to 2020 at the communal and vineyard levels in a French wine-growing region, and to decipher the drivers of change