Abstract
BACKGROUND Monastrell is a red grape cultivar adapted to the dry environmental conditions of Murcia, SE Spain. Its berries seem to be characterized by a rigid cell wall structure, which could make difficult the winemaking process. Cabernet Sauvignon cultivar is used to complement Monastrell wines in this region owing to its high phenolic content with high extractability. This study explores the skin cell wall composition of grapes from plants resulting from intraspecific crosses of Vitis vinifera cultivars MonastrellxCabernet Sauvignon. Moreover, the morphology of the cell wall material (CWM) from some representative samples was visualized by transmission optical microscopy.RESULTS The total sugar content of CWM from nine out of ten genotypes of the progeny was lower than that from Monastrell. Seven out of ten genotypes showed lower phenolic content than Cabernet Sauvignon. The CWM from nine out of ten hybrids presented lower protein content than that from Monastrell.CONCLUSION This study confirms that skin cell walls from MonastrellxCabernet Sauvignon hybrid grapes presented major differences in composition compared with their parents. These data could help in the development of new cultivars adapted to the dry conditions of SE Spain and with a cell wall composition favouring extractability.