Project Number
IWBT 16-01

Project title
Wine production as a system: Integration and data mining.

Project leader
Vivier, M A

Institution
Stellenbosch University. Department of Viticulture and Oenology University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of AgriSciences. Institute for Wine Biotechnology

Team members
Vivier, M A
Bauer, F F
Du Toit, M
Van Rensburg, K
Kullan, J

Project description
Wine production is a complex multi-step process. The difficulty to control the individual steps and accurately define the composition of the different raw materials and products explains partly why the wine process is less of an engineered industrial process than beer or bread-making that also rely on a fermentation by yeast to produce the final products. Wines are not only complex and not easily defined in terms of quality and composition, the diversity of the starting materials (grapes) and biological agents (yeast and bacteria) used for the fermentations introduce incredible variability and complexity into the system.

Linking what happens in the vineyard to the wine fermentation and ultimately to characteristics in the wine during ageing is often attempted in scientific studies, but clear causal relationships between factors are not easy to extract. Most wine research is therefore split along viticultural or enological experiment. Enologists and yeast biologists seek direct links between the yeast fermenting a specific juice and the resulting changes in the wines, whereas viticultural studies explore treatments and their effects on grape production and berry quality parameters. If these studies indeed attempt to link back to the vineyards or the wines respectively, invariably one or more of the steps in the wine system is left unexplored, or being handled as a black box. The scientific challenge and opportunity therefore remains to study wine value chain.

This integrative study of Sauvignon blanc grapes cultivated in the Elgin area will include: bunch microclimate, grape development and ripening, fermentation, winemaking, and sensorial evaluation of the wines. The focus of this research study is not the generation of data; but the integration and interpretation of the data in the winemaking value chain.

Poster(s)
Young, P. 2016. Metabolic plasticity and adaptation to (micro) climate change: Sauvignon blanc modulates specific quality-associated berry metabolites in response to increased exposure. Poster presented at the 10th International Symposium on Grapevine Physiology and Biotechnology,13-18 June, Verona, Italy.

Presentation(s)
Young, P. 2016. Vineyard set-up, vine treatment, seasons and monitoring procedures. Paper presented at the NRF STINT Bilateral Workshop on the Wine as a system Project. 20-22 April, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Du Plessis, K. 2016. Transcriptomics on the grape berry. Paper presented at the NRF STINT Bilateral Workshop on the Wine as a system Project. 20-22 April, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Young, P. 2016. Conclusions from the grape berry analysis. Paper presented at the NRF STINT Bilateral Workshop on the Wine as a system Project. 20-22 April, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Setati, E. 2016. Microbial diversity of the juice. Paper presented at the NRF STINT Bilateral Workshop on the Wine as a system Project. 20-22 April, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Berry, A and Rossouw, D. 2016. Chemical analysis on the juice, must and wine and Wine Yeast Transcriptomics. Paper presented at the NRF STINT Bilateral Workshop on the Wine as a system Project. 20-22 April, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Brand, J. 2016. Sensorial analysis of the wine. Paper presented at the NRF STINT Bilateral Workshop on the Wine as a system Project. 20-22 April, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Sjögren, R. 2016. Visualization of high-dimensional multi-block data. Paper presented at the NRF STINT Bilateral Workshop on wine as a system Project. 20-22 April, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Stenlund, H. 2016. Swedish Metabolomics Centre. Paper presented at the NRF STINT Bilateral Workshop on the Wine as a system Project. 20-22 April, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Surowiec, I. 2016. Mass spectrometry metabolomics – methods and applications. Paper presented at the NRF STINT Bilateral Workshop on the Wine as a system Project. 20-22 April, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Bygdell, J. 2016. Plant proteomics – a paralogous issue. Paper presented at the NRF STINT Bilateral Workshop on the Wine as a system Project. 20-22 April, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Sjödin, A. 2016. Real-time analysis of the unknown. Paper presented at the NRF STINT Bilateral Workshop on the Wine as a system Project. 20-22 April, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Vivier, M. 2016. ‘The whole world in a glass of wine’. Introduction into the Wine-as-a-system project. Presented at the Umeå Plant Science Centre and Computational Life Science Cluster (CLiC), 21 June, Umeå University, Sweden.

Joubert, C. 2016. How do field-grown grapevine berries acclimate to UV exposure in high and low light conditions? Paper presented at the 10th International Symposium on Grapevine Physiology and Biotechnology. 13-18 June, Verona, Italy.

Vivier, M. 2016. Field-grown Sauvignon blanc berries react to increased exposure by controlling antioxidant homeostasis and displaying UV acclimation responses that are influenced by the level of ambient light. Paper presented at the Macrowine Conference. 27-30 June, Changins, (Nyon), Switzerland.

Vivier, M A, du Plessis, K, Joubert, C, Eyeghe-Bickong, H, Berry, A, Young, P R. 2017. Many compounds linked to “quality” in wine originate from stresses experienced by grape berries. Keynote lecture presented at the 10th Symposium of In Vino Analytica Scientia. 17–20 July, Salamanca, Spain .

Article
Joubert, P, Young, P R, Eyéghé-Bickong, H A, Vivier, M A. Fortes, A M (ed). 2016. Field-grown grapevine berries use carotenoids and the associated xanthophyll cycles to acclimate to UV exposure differentially in high and low light (shade) conditions. Frontiers in Plant Science, v. 7 (786) (p. 1-17)
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2016.00786

Young, P, Eyéghé-Bickong, H A, Du Plessis, K, Alexandersson, E, Jacobson, D A, Coetzee, Z A, Deloire, A, Vivier, M A. 2016. Grapevine plasticity in response to an altered microclimate: Sauvignon blanc modulates specific metabolites in response to increased berry exposure [Online] Plant Physiology, v. 170 (p. 1235-1254)
http://www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.15.01775

Du Plessis, K, Young, P R, Eyéghé-Bickong, H A, Vivier, M A. 2017. The transcriptional responses and metabolic consequences of acclimation to elevated light exposure in grapevine berries, Frontiers in Plant Science, v. 8 (1261) (p. 1-23)
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2017.01261

Eyéghé-Bickong, H A, Young, P, Vivier, M A. 2017. Analytical methods to measure grape metabolites – a review, WineLand Technical, Mnth Jan
http://www.wineland.co.za/analytical-methods-measure-grape-metabolites-review/

Joubert, C, Vivier, M A. 2017. Sugars on the move through the vine [Online] WineLand Technical, Mnth Aug
http://www.wineland.co.za/sugars-move-vine/

Vogel, D, Hills, P N, Moore, J P. 2017. Evaluating the role of natural plant-derived compounds in modifying disease defence mechanisms in and plantlets [Online] South African Journal of Botany, Mnth March v. 109 (p. 374)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sajb.2017.01.193

Young, P R, Vivier, M A. 2017. Berry stress and wine quality. [Online] WineLand Technical, Mnth Mar
http://www.wineland.co.za/berry-stress-wine-quality/

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