Expertise documents

In 2017, the organic vineyard areas had tripled in 10 years and approximately 5% of worldwide vineyards are now under organic certifications.  For organic growers, who cannot use other fungicide sprays, copper sulfate is still an effective tool against downy mildew. With the increased production of organic vineyards in the world, the use of this fungicide has also grown with the expansion of this type of farming. It is known that elevated concentrations of this metal can be toxic to yeasts and bacteria. Our results have shown that wine yeast and bacteria do not appear to be significantly affected by Cu concentrations higher than 15 mg/L, except in the case of malolactic fermentation in white wines, where concentration > 7.5 mg/L can impact the MLF. High pH and high Cu concentrations can impact wine yeast viability and lag phase. To read more about this topic, please consult our Winemaking Update - Organic Version WUP Organic 2020 Cu- ENG LR

The tendency to harvest higher maturity grapes, resulting in higher pH and alcohol wines, seems more favorable to the development of indigenous bacteria. To limit the development of unknown indigenous flora, which can lead to the production of undesirable sensory deviations, co-inoculation is an interesting winemaking option and using selected Lb. plantarum in the freeze-dried form for direct inoculation appears to be a very safe winemaking option in combination with the co-inoculation strategy. L. plantarum ML Prime™ offers several advantages: good implantation, fast, effective dominance in co-inoculation and very fast, complete MLF under high pH conditions. In addition, its facultative heterofermentative characteristics makes ML Prime™ a safe choice for preventing the formation of acetic acid (volatile acidity) from hexose sugars. For more information on this topic, WUP #1-2015 ML Prime - SK  

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