Spatial characterisation of terrain units in the Bottelaryberg-Simonsberg-Helderberg wine growing area (South Africa)

similar to other agricultural producers, grape growers face increasing pressure to improve productivity and production efficiency while reducing their environmental impact. Threats due to extreme climate events, as well as the uncertainty of available water and labor, provide significant challenges to the future of grape production. This presentation will provide an integrated overview of the tools and technologies being developed to address these issues and to help growers manage vineyards in the future, including vineyard design, remote and proximal sensing, automation, data management and decision support systems, and germplsm improvement. The potential impact of these advancements on vineyard productivity, fruit quality, and sustainability will be discussed.

Phenolic compounds are secondary metabolites of grapes. Plants produce a wide variety of this type of metabolites through diverse biosynthesis pathways and their production is sometimes a response to external stimuli, either environmental or biotic stresses. Some of them may act as chemical defenses against pathogens or herbivores and their synthesis is increased when the attack exists. However, it is remarkable that the synthesis of these interesting compounds can be activated even when the stimulus is not present, with the use of elicitors. These are substances that when applied exogenously trigger the biosynthetic pathways conducting to the synthesis of these defense compounds.

Climate change is increasing the frequency of water deficit in many grape-growing regions. Grapevine varieties differ in their stomatal behavior during water deficit, and their ability to regulate water potential under dry soil conditions is commonly differentiated using the concept of isohydricity. It remains unclear whether stomatal behavior, water potential regulation, and the resulting degree of isohydricity has a relationship with changes to fruit growth during water deficit. This study was conducted on four varieties (`Cabernet Franc`, `Semillon`, `Grenache`, and `Riesling`) subjected to both short-term, severe water deficit and long-term, moderate water deficit applied at both pre- and post-veraison.

In the context of climate change and the need to reduce inputs, optimising photosynthesis and grapevine performance requires a better understanding of the interactions between water status, nitrogen availability, and source-sink relationships.

The presence of grape-derived heat unstable proteins can lead to haze formation in white wines [1], an instability prevented by removing these proteins by adding bentonite, a hydrated aluminum silicate that interacts electrostatically with wine proteins leading to their flocculation. Despite effective, using bentonite has several drawbacks as the costs associated with its use, the potential negative effects on wine quality, and its environmental impact, so that alternative solutions are needed.