Sensory profile of wines produced from disease-resistant grapevine varieties grown in the Mediterranean area

The transition to a sustainable viticulture is vital to address environmental issues such as the use of agrochemicals and greenhouse gas emissions. In viticulture, the use of disease-resistant varieties (PIWI) offers a promising solution because of their lower requirement for fungicides treatments, but little is known about their qualitative performance in Mediterranean environments. This study evaluated the quality of wines produced from Merlot Kanthus and Merlot Khorus varieties compared to their parental Merlot N. cultivar in Salento, an area of the Apulia region in southern Italy, characterized by a hot and dry climate. Two different sensory analyses, namely, an affective and a quantitative descriptive test, were performed. Resistant varieties tend to outperform Merlot N. in sensory preferences, acidity, and color, achieving high quality in the Apulian terroir. These results prove the potential value of resistant varieties like Merlot Kanthus and Merlot Khorus to produce high-quality wines in Mediterranean regions and to support a wider acceptance and adoption of PIWI varieties in Italian regions which currently restrict their use.