Moderate wine consumption – part of a balanced diet or a health risk?

Croatian viticulture is mainly based on native grapevine varieties susceptible to various diseases and pests, which leads to unsustainable use of large amounts of pesticides. The sustainable development of viticulture in the future will only be possible by increasing the resistance of the grapevine through the development of new resistant varieties. Breeding programs have been launched in the leading wine-growing countries to develop resistant varieties possessing high-quality levels. Native cultivars from Croatia are not included in the breeding programs of other countries.

For sustainable viticulture, the substitution of chemical inputs with biocontrol products has become one of the most considered strategies. This strategy is based on elicitor-triggered immunity that requires a deep understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in plant defense activation. Plant immune responses are triggered through the perception of conserved microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs) which are recognized by pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) at the plasma membrane.

Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is a minor part of the solar spectrum, but it represents an important ecological factor that influences many biological processes related to plant growth and development. In recent years, the application of UVR in agriculture and food production is emerging as a clean and environmentally friendly technology.
In grapevine, many studies have been conducted on the effects of ambient levels of UVR, but there are few considering the effects of UV-B application on grape phenolic composition under commercial growing or postharvest conditions.

Given the impact of climate change on viticulture in the Region of Murcia, this paper attempts to expose the possibility of using genetic improvement as a dilemma that allows access to new descendant varieties of the autochthonous variety Monastrell crossed with varieties such as Syrah and Cabernet. Sauvignon, thus obtaining hybrids (Gebas and Myrtia). In it, the chromatic parameters and the phenolic profile of the new varieties will be compared with those obtained by the Monastrell variety at two moments during maturation (12 and 14 º Baumé), to check if the results would allow earlier harvests in these new varieties thus avoiding the decoupling between phenolic and technological maturity, while improving the quality of grapes and wines.

The mechanization of pruning and harvesting in vineyards has increased the risk of soil compaction. To reclaim soil properties or avoid this degradation process, it is crucial to properly manage the soil organic matter, and the application of compost derived from the vines themselves is a strategy to achieve this. The objective of this study was to evaluate the properties of soil treated with different doses of compost applied both on the vine row and the inter rows of a Vitis vinifera crop.