Beyond colors of rosé wines: impact of origin and winemaking technology on their color, polyphenol and thiol compositions

Grapevine (Vitis Vinifera L.), one of the most important cultivated fruit crops, is facing significant challenges due to climate change. Specifically, increasing temperatures negatively impact the physiological traits and disrupt plant phenology. Additionally, increased virulence in pathogen attacks and pests leads to significant yield loss, requiring widespread application of plant protection products. Traditional agronomic practices offer only partial mitigation, requiring the development of precise and effective intervention strategies. The economic worth of viticulture has prompted continuous efforts in grapevine genetic improvement programs, traditionally involving conventional breeding and clonal selection that, however, are complex and time-consuming approaches.

The fungicidal effect of UV-C radiation (100-280 nm wavelength) is well known, but its applicability for the control of pathogenic molds of grapes is conditioned by its effect on the host and by the risks inherent in its handling[1].
As an alternative, the effect in vitro of UV-B radiation (280-315 nm) on the main pathogenic molds of grapes has been studied: Botrytis cinerea, Aspergillus niger, Penicillium expansum and Rhizopus stolonifer.

Water and nutrient availability significantly impact crop yield, thus the application of sustainable strategies towards efficient water use and nutrient absorption by plants is needed.

[English version below]

A tre anni dal suo inizio, nel 1997 si è conclusa la prima fase della ricerca “Caratterizzazione della produzione DOC Soave”. Lo studio ha basato il suo percorso sperimentale su alcuni punti fondamentali tra i quali:
• Recupero di tutte le informazioni storico-colturali sul vino Soave e sul suo territorio di produzione.

Agriculture, natural resource management and the production and sale of products such as wine are increasingly data-driven activities. Thus, the use of remote and proximal crop and soil sensors to aid management decisions is becoming commonplace and ‘Agtech’ is proliferating commercially; mapping, underpinned by geographical information systems and complex methods of spatial analysis, is widely used. Likewise, the chemical and sensory analysis of wines draws on multivariate statistics; the efficient winery intake of grapes, subsequent production of wines and their delivery to markets relies on logistics; whilst the sales and marketing of wines is increasingly driven by artificial intelligence linked to the recorded purchasing behaviour of consumers. In brief, there is data everywhere!

Opinions will vary on whether these developments are a good thing. Those concerned with the ‘mystique’ of wine, or the historical aspects of terroir and its preservation, may find them confronting. In contrast, they offer an opportunity to those interested in the biophysical elements of terroir, and efforts aimed at better understanding how these impact on vineyard performance and the sensory attributes of resultant wines. At the previous Terroir Congress, we demonstrated the potential of analytical methods used at the within-vineyard scale in the development of Precision Viticulture, in contributing to a quantitative understanding of regional terroir. For this conference, we take this approach forward with examples from contrasting locations in both the northern and southern hemispheres. We show how, by focussing on the vineyards within winegrowing regions, as opposed to all of the land within those regions, we might move towards a more robust terroir zoning than one derived from a mixture of history, thematic mapping, heuristics and the whims of marketers. Aside from providing improved understanding by underpinning terroir with data, such methods should also promote improved management of the entire wine value chain.