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Winemaking
Although the Merlot grapes were quite large, they produced wines showing good tannic structure, no rustic characters or dilution.

Wednesday April 28 2021

Bordeaux looks back on its 2020 vintage

“As the harvest got nearer, the Covid-19 pandemic caused a lot of concern among wine growers. Various adjustments had to be made, but
Winemaking
To the best of our knowledge, there is only one product that can stabilise wines specifically against calcium precipitation and that is STABICa from the Champagne research centre.

Thursday April 01 2021

An increase in calcium precipitation in wines

"Unlike potassium bitartrate, which has transparent crystals, neutral calcium tartrate has a whitish appearance in white and rosé wines. (...)
Winemaking
“Testimonials by winemakers out on the ground all [showed that they] recovered completely after a few weeks. But this required rehabilitation and intense daily tasting exercises”, said Sophie Pallas.

Tuesday March 16 2021

French winemakers want priority status for Covid-19 vaccinations

Since Covid-19 upended the world a year ago, there are still many unknown aspects of the disease, but there is one certainty: “We now (...)
Winemaking
Further testing is needed to understand all these interactions.

Thursday March 11 2021

The pigments responsible for a wine’s colour also change its flavour

Anthocyanins not only give wine its colour, they also change its flavour. That is according to Maria Alessandra Paissoni, from the University (...)
Winemaking
Including essential oils and equipment, a kit costs less than fifty euros for three months.

Monday January 18 2021

A technique for regaining taste and sense of smell after Covid

“Whether Covid-induced or not, impairment of sense of smell or taste affects 5 to 15 % of the population”, explains Laurence Gény, (...)
Winemaking
In value terms, the popularity of large format barrels has led to growth of 8.6% in the domestic market and 2.7% elsewhere.

Friday October 09 2020

French coopers sustain revenues

In 2019, the 58 members of the French cooperage federation sold 658,000 units generating turnover of €494.4 million. “We had feared (...)
Winemaking
“Our concern, as an industry organisation, is to help our members. We work with our noses and tasting every day is a necessity”, stressed Didier Fages.

Monday July 06 2020

Loss of smell is more crippling to the wine industry than was thought

The French winemakers’ organisation has potentially uncovered a can of worms, due to the coronavirus crisis. “We have been hearing (...)
Friday May 29 2020 - Winemaking by Vitisphere
Galdric Nogues, product manager for Lamothe Abiet's fermentation range, monitored the research in conjunction with the Asti viticulture and oenology research centre in Italy during the 2019 harvest.

A dash of gunflint to boost aroma in white wines

“Initially, our aim was to better characterise expression of our two thiol-revealing flagship yeasts in the Excellence range, TXL and (...)
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Thursday February 13 2020 - Winemaking by Vitisphere
“Our charter prompts three types of reaction from winegrowers: “It gets on my nerves”, “I have things to hide” and “OK, we have to take the plunge, this is the way of the world”, commented Jacques Carroget on 3 February in Angers.

Natural wines get definition and commitments

Defining and establishing a framework for natural wines is something of a tall order, but those behind the initiative hope to rapidly remove (...)
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Thursday December 05 2019 - Winemaking by Vitisphere
This vintage, winemakers in southern France must also watch out for mouse taint.

Mediterranean firms on the alert for contaminants

The disparate 2019 vintage has led to very different fermentation itineraries in French wineries, according to comments made during the Sitevi (...)
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Wednesday December 04 2019 - Winemaking by Vitisphere
The Smart Green and Classic Green stoppers now have a zero carbon footprint.

Nomacorc announces the release of grape-based stoppers in 2020

“We plan to launch a Nomacorc stopper made from grape pomace in 2020”, said Olav Aagaard, vice-president of Vinventions' R&D (...)
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Thursday September 19 2019 - Winemaking by Vitisphere
“Most of the levels are low, but smoke taint can progress”, warned Vincent Bouazza.

France faces risk of smoke taint

After the many forest fires over the summer, specialists have sent out a word of warning for the harvest period in the vineyards of southern (...)
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Monday April 08 2019 - Winemaking by Vitisphere
The onset of Brett on batches of fermenting 2018 wine occurred very early on in the year and was kept under wraps in Bordeaux.

2018 En Primeur: the ideal wine profile… including for Brett

The 2018 vintage in Bordeaux, which miraculously survived out in the vineyard, displays the kind of ripeness and balance that should have (...)
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Thursday January 10 2019 - Winemaking by Vitisphere
Tank manufacturers are focusing on visual appeal and personalisation and not presenting any major winemaking developments.

Haute-couture for wine tanks

“Our tanks are designed to become pieces of family furniture”, claims Laurent Guillemain, sales director for equipment manufacturer (...)
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Wednesday November 28 2018 - Winemaking by Vitisphere
Inspired by late 19th century industry, the GalileOak’s chassis highlights the decorative intentions for the tank.

Seguin Moreau turns wood into spherical barrels

He may have lost track of the number of photos taken by visitors to the Vinitech show, but Nicolas Mälher-Besse, managing director of Seguin (...)
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Thursday June 21 2018 - Winemaking by Vitisphere
“A little noble rot in suspension, the impurities slowly fall. This wine is 23 years old. Wine is all about soil. This one is slightly gravelly, it’s a Médoc. Wine is also about sunshine. This wine enjoyed an excellent South-West aspect on a good sloping hillside. It’s a Saint-Julien. 1953 Château Léoville Las Cazes!” proclaimed famous French actor Louis de Funès in one of the most famous blind tastings.

How blind tasting does not make recognising a wine easier, at least immediately

“Blind tasting is not a myth. Trained tasters get better results than random responses” claimed researchers Qian Janice Wang and (...)
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Monday June 11 2018 - Winemaking by Vitisphere
The use of light to 'treat' vines with fungal diseases was quickly mentioned. For Michel Valade, “the technique is attractive in the laboratory, but transitioning to vineyards is likely to be very challenging...”

Striking lucky with light

“Hold an aperitif in the sun and you’ll get guaranteed light strike after three minutes!” quipped Michel Valade, head of (...)
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Friday February 16 2018 - Winemaking by Vitisphere
Bitterness is a double-edged flavour.

How the brain copes with bitterness

According to neurobiologist Gabriel Lepousez, 700 molecules have now been listed as responsible for bitterness and include peptides, esters, (...)
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Tuesday February 13 2018 - Winemaking by Vitisphere
There are similarities between Spanish (Jerez and Manzanilla), French (mainly in Jura...), Hungarian (Tokay) and Italian wines (particularly in Sardinia).

Wines with a flor

“Wines with a veil of flor yeast are the opposite to wines that are topped up during ageing”, summed up oenologist Jocelyn Broncard, (...)
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Thursday December 14 2017 - Winemaking by Vitisphere

A laser for detecting Brett in casks

During the maturation phase, the laser probe “will not replace laboratory analyses [to detect Brettanomyces] but clearly, a simple tool, (...)
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