Wine Science in the Omics Era: The Impact of Systems Biology on the Future of Wine Research

Abstract

Industrial wine making confronts viticulturalists, wine makers, process engineers and scientists alike with a bewildering array of independent and semi-independent parameters that can in many cases only be optimized by trial and error. Furthermore, as most parameters are outside of individual control, predictability and consistency of the end product remain difficult to achieve. The traditional wine sciences of viticulture and oenology have been accumulating data sets and generating knowledge and know-how that has resulted in a significant optimization of the vine growing and wine making processes. However, much of these processes remain based on empirical and even anecdotal evidence, and only a small part of all the interactions and cause-effect relationships between individual input and output parameters is scientifically well understood. Indeed, the complexity of the process has prevented a deeper understanding of such interactions and causal relationships. New technologies and methods in the biological and chemical sciences, combined with improved tools of multivariate data analysis, open new opportunities to assess the entire vine growing and wine making process from a more holistic perspective. This review outlines the current efforts to use the tools of systems biology in particular to better understand complex industrial processes such as wine making.

An Overview on the Application of Chemometrics in Food Science and Technology—An Approach to Quantitative Data Analysis

“…These technologies and methods used in the biological and chemical sciences, combined with chemometric tools, open new opportunities for the assessment of the chemical and physical properties of foods using a different approach, which means allowing the analysis of the whole matrix/food or even the process (Hopke 2003;Gishen et al 2005;Rossouw and Bauer 2009;Fotakis et al 2013). The field of chemometrics, unlike classic statistics, considers several variables concurrently taking collinearity into account (the variation in one variable, or group of variables, in terms of co-variation with other variables) (Naes et al 2002;Brereton 2000Brereton , 2008Cozzolino 2011, 2013).…”

Gas exchange, vine performance and modulation of secondary metabolism in Vitis vinifera L. cv Barbera following long-term nitrogen deficit

“…Cecilia Squeri and Begoña Miras-Moreno contributed equally to the work. mostly dictated by empirical or, even worse, anecdotal evidence (Rossouw and Bauer 2009). Vine nutrition is an important factor for optimal vine balance and desired wine properties and, among essential vine nutrients, nitrogen (N) is the most abundant soil-derived macronutrient in grapevine and plays a pivotal role in many biological processes related to vine and berry growth, berry composition, and fermentation kinetics (Bell and Henschke 2005).…”