Phenolic profiling of Cabernet Sauvignon berries and wines from different clones planted at four regions of Mendoza, Argentina

RASSE M.; URVIETA R.; FONTANA A.; BUSCEMA F.; BERLI F.; MUÑOZ F.; BOTTINI R.

Punta del Este

Congreso; XLI World Congress of Vine and Wine; 2018

Organización Internacional de la Viña y el Vino (OIV)

The ?terroir? is a concept widely used to define the typicality of the wine that is affected by genetic, environmental and human factors (e.g. grapevine varieties, climate, soil, slope, irrigation). The grapevine phenotypical characteristics and their wines biochemical composition depends on the plant material selected, the implantation system, the vineyard characteristics and the cultural management practices. Phenotypic plasticity is a phenomenon that plays a key role in the terroir because is the ability of an organism to express diverse phenotypes in different environments.The most reputed vineyards in Mendoza, Argentina, are located in the Uco Valley and Luján de Cuyo regions. The Uco Valley is characterized by high altitude vineyards (ranging from 900 to 1500 m asl), high levels of solar radiation, especially ultraviolet-B radiation, permeable stony soils, harsh winters and high thermal amplitude between day and night. Meanwhile, Luján de Cuyo is characterized by deeper soils and warmer summers. The Cabernet Sauvignon, a well-known world-wide Vitis vinifera cultivar, is very important and has the second major implanted surface (11%), after Malbec (49%), in the Uco Valley (INV-2015), with potential to produce high quality wines.The aim of the present study was to evaluate the phenotypic plasticity, based on berry and wine anthocyanin profiles of different Cabernet Sauvignon genotypes implanted at different vineyards. The experiment was carried on during 2017-2018 growing season with two Cabernet Sauvignon clones (Mont Eden and Clone 7) planted on 4 different vineyards distributed across 2 regions (Uco Valley and Luján de Cuyo).Al the grapevines were harvest when reached the commercial ripeness (24Brix) and the winemaking process was carried out in duplicate using 800 L vessels under standardized conditions, and then the aging was in stainless steel tanks of 50 L. Anthocyanin compounds were analyzed and quantified using liquid chromatography with diode array detector (HPLC-DAD).The results showed that berries and wines of Cabernet Sauvignon from different vineyards have a composition characteristics associated with their geographical origin. The two different clones show similar range of concentration in almost all the data. We distinguished that the vineyard in Eugenio Bustos and Altamira have similar chemical profiles. The Cabernet Sauvignon Clone 7 of Eugenio Bustos presented higher concentration of anthocyanins parameters in berries (non-acetylated, acetylated, coumaroylated, di/try hydroxylated and methylated) as the Cabernet Sauvignon Mont Eden had a higher concentration in Altamira. The altitude and the distance in between the two vineyards are similar and the climatic parameter are close.The other vineyards such as those located in Gualtallary and Agrelo are separated very well using the berries concentration profiles, excepting some data between them using the anthocyanins profiles (acetylated forms, di-hydroxylated and tri-hydroxylated). We also observed that the Cabernet Sauvignon Clone 7 presented higher concentration in Agrelo. In contrariwise, the Cabernet Sauvignon Mont Eden from Gualtallary had higher concentration. Those results showed that the Cabernet Sauvignon Clon 7 had better expression in higher altitude and the Mont Eden in lower altitude on the berries data. Also, those results can be due to the altitude effect with the high level of solar radiation and the climatic property that would be modifying the variability in each vineyard. We also observed that Agrelo grapes presented more concentration on anthocyanins in berry extracts as the 3 other vineyards located at higher altitude.This work show preliminary results for Cabernet Sauvignon grapes and wines of Mendoza, Argentina, including one of the most important regions of Argentina in terms of quality of its production such as is the Uco Valley. Our aim is adding new information related to the effect of plant material and vineyard location in the phenotypic plasticity and terroir concept.