Monitoring early rooting behavior of grapevine rootstocks: a 2D-imaging approach

The Occitanie Region is the first vine-growing area in France: 270 000 hectares of vineyard and an annual production of 15 million hectoliters. Its annual income reaches 1 900 million euros, of which 900 million euros in export.The vine and wine sector is facing many issues: inputs reduction, adaptation to climate change, maintaining the production competitiveness, digital tools integration in production and transformation processes, and the production of quality wines meeting the consumer demand.

Vineyards are strongly exposed to fungal diseases, attacks from insects and competition with weeds. Most treatments used on grape vines contain synthetic active substances, which may be transferred to the wine. Such pesticides have a negative image because many active substances are potential health hazards. A specific oenological treatment allowing the reduction of pesticide residues in wine based on activated vegetable fibres (AVF) is under examination by the International Organisation for Vine and Wine. This technique works efficiently and alters the wine only little (Lempereur et al. 2014).

Due to ongoing climate change, managing vineyard diseases has become increasingly challenging in the Republic of Moldova.

Rootstocks are an essential l management tool for diverse viticultural challenges. However, studies that combine sensory evaluation and compositional analysis of berries and wine, to determine whether the use of a particular rootstock in a terroir can influence wine quality are sparse.

Several factors like vineyard site, climate, grape variety, ripeness, physical health of the grapes and pest management influence the populations of indigenous yeasts on grapes and later on in spontaneous fermentations.