Climatic potential to produce grapes for wine-making in the tropical north region of Minas Gerais State, Brazil

In the context of climate change with increasing evaporative demand, understanding the water use behavior of different grapevine cultivars is of critical importance. Carbon isotope discrimination (δ13C) measurements in wine provide a precise and integrated assessment of the water status of the vines during the sugar accumulation period in grape berries. When collected over multiple vintages on different cultivars, δ13C measurements can also provide insights into the effects of genotype on water use efficiency.

The occurrence of faults and taints in wine, such as those caused by microbial spoilage or various taints, have resulted in significant financial losses to wine producers. The wine industry commits significant financial resources towards fining and taint removal processes each year. Fining involves the addition of one or more adsorptive substrates to juice or wine to bind certain components, thus reducing their concentration [1]. However, these processes are often not selective and can also remove desirable flavour and aroma compounds.

The work shows the results of a year of experimentation (2020) in a Syrah variety vineyard in La Roda (Castilla-La Mancha, Spain). The trial approach was on a randomized block design with two factors: Irrigation (I) and Pruning (P).
Irrigation schedules were adjusted to apply amounts close to 1,500 m3/ha. With this provision, 2 different irrigation treatments were proposed: I1) Start of irrigation from pea-sized grape to post-harvest (providing at least 20 % of the total amount of irrigation water to be provided post-harvest); I2) Start of irrigation from pea-sized grape to harvest (usual irrigation practice in the study area). Pruning was proposed with two treatments, one at the end of January (P1), which is pruning on a conventional date; and P2) pruning carried out at the beginning of budding. In total, 4 repetitions were designed with 4 elementary plots, each one of them representing one of the proposed treatments (I1P1; I1P2; I2P1; I2P2). In total, 16 plots were worked on and each elementary plot consisted of 30 strains, distributed in 3 lines.
The productive response was evaluated with the yield results of the harvest harvested at 23 ºBrix. The qualitative response was measured in the musts through the indices of technological (acidity, pH and potassium) and phenolic maturity and aromatic compounds in free and glycosylated fractions. The treatments tested had, in general, an effect on the different variables analyzed.

Nowadays biodiversity loss is considered as a prior environmental issue. Agricultural landscapes are particularly concerned, mainly through the specialization and intensification of farming activities which lead, at a larger scale, to landscape simplification. Landscape management would be a good means to halt biodiversity loss, but large-scale studies remain rare. The life+ project BioDiVine aims to understand biodiversity dynamics and promote sustainable conservation actions at this scale in viticulture.

Grapevine nitrogen (N) monitoring is essential for efficient N management plans that optimize fruit yield and quality while reducing fertilizer costs and the risk of environmental contamination. Unlike traditional vegetative-tissue sampling methods, remote sensing technologies, including hyperspectral imaging, have the potential to allow monitoring of the N status of entire vineyards at a per-vine resolution. However, differential N partitioning, variable spectral properties, and complex canopy structures hinder the development of a robust N retrieval algorithm. The present study aimed to establish a solid understanding of vine spectroscopic response at leaf and canopy levels by evaluating the different nitrogen retrieval approaches, including the radiative transfer model.