Grape maturation temperature influence

Temperature is one of the most important parameters of grape maturation and one of the essential factors that triggers it. Temperature affects photo-synthetic activity, metabolism and migration intensity in the vine. Its action is not limited to the period of grape development. Its influence on bud bmst and flowering dates also has important indirect consequences on grape quality. It is easy to... 

Temperature also strongly influences many biochemical mechanisms involved in grape maturation. For example, malic acid degradation is considerably accelerated during hot weather malic... 

The difference between the M3G concentration in individual ferments (Table 1) could be partially attributed to the bin-to-bin variation of grapes having different maturity and might have been influenced by the choice of tank type and fermentation temperature (77). It remains to be established whether the peak M3G concentration reflected the maximum possible concentration of extractable anthocyanins under the conditions studied, or whether it was limited by the physical skin removal and could have been further increased by extended maceration on skins. 

In conclusion, the primordial influence of soil has been recognized for a long time in the form of viticultural terroirs. The soil must create favorable conditions for grape development and maturation (mineral and water supply and microclimate). The temperature above the soil and its water content also have an impact on the earUness or lateness of the vines growing season (Barbeau etal., 1998 Tesic et al 2001). These two parameters give an initial indication of the quality of a terroir. But a quality terroir must also limit the consequences of weather variations from one year to another. Soil study is difficult since all of the factors likely to influence the biochemical processes of maturation should be taken into account. 

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