Viticulture, landscapes and the marketing of our wine

L’Albana è il vitigno a bacca bianca tradizionale delle colline della Romagna, dove é presente per più di 2.500 ha. Con le sue uve si produce il vino “Albana di Romagna”, una delle più storiche D.O.C.G. italiane essendo stata costituita nel 1987. La maggiore concentrazione di vigneti di Albana si trova nell’Imolese e nelle colline del Ravennate, ma ben conosciuta per la qualità del prodotto é anche la produzione di Bertinoro, nel Forlivese.

With climate change, it is progressively more often to obtain grapes with an acceptable content in sugars or acids but with immature tannins described as green, aggressive or hard (noted as GAH onwards). During winemaking, the oenologist has to make decisions related to the elaboration of such grapes based mainly on empirical experience, given the lack of objective criteria to this concern. An increase in the chemical and sensory knowledge of immature tannins would allow managing this GAH character of grapes with the maximum possible efficiency during winemaking processes. The present work aims at isolating and identifying the group of compounds responsible for the GAH character present in wines.

Grapevine trunk diseases (GTD) occur wherever grapes are grown and are considered the main biotic factor reducing yields and shortening vineyards’ lifespan. Currently, no product is available to eradicate GTD once grapevines are infected. Therefore, prophylactic strategies based on pruning wound protection and ‘remedial surgery’, the only eradication method based on the elimination of infected wood and renewal of the vine by means of new canes or suckers, are the only effective strategies available. The Canadian grape and wine industry focusses on a sustainable production and thus, looking for alternatives to chemicals for disease management is a top priority.

The technique of crossing, whether free or controlled, has always been a source of variability allowing the selection of new varieties with improved fitness.

In the context of sustainable viticulture, modern and efficient techniques to determine water status are required to optimize irrigation practices. Proximal techniques such as thermography and spectroscopy have shown promising results. When these techniques are incorporated into mobile systems is possible to evaluate the water status on-the-go, offering the possibility to generate variability maps. However, in most cases, complex protocols of data acquisition and analysis are required. Also, the inherent physiological behaviour of the plants under certain water stress conditions needs to be considered. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of scion-rootstock combinations on the performance of a predefined plant-based method based on proximal near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy.