Viticultural and Biotechnological Strategies to Reduce Alcohol Content in Red Wines

Viticultural and biotechnological strategies are two approaches to deal with higher must sugar levels at harvest time. A wide range of factors could significantly affect sugar accumulation in the grape such as choice of vineyard site, soil composition, irrigation strategy, rootstock, and grape cultivar selection as well as grape yield. In this sense, approaches to canopy management are continually evolving in response to changes in other vineyard management practices; some of these could contribute to reduce soluble sugars on grape berries at harvest time. On the other hand, among possible biotechnological strategies, one of the most relevant is the control of the fermentative process by using selected yeast strains. In this chapter, we will show how some viticultural practices have influenced the accumulation of soluble sugars and other enological parameters in grape berries at harvest time. We will also report how a careful yeast selection and the implementation of different fermentation strategies can also contribute to reduce ethanol content in wines