Dry leaf hyperspectral reflectance predicts leaf elemental composition in grafted hybrids

Kokumi is a complex sensation perceived as enhanced palatability. Under the influence of kokumi substances, foods/beverages tastes become more flavorful with increased intensity, spread, continuity, richness, harmony, and punch which are the six related characteristics corresponding to the Kokumi sensory concept [1].

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.

qNMR Metabolomic applied to wine offers many possibilities. The first application that is increasingly being studied is the authentication of wines through environmental factors such as geographical origin, grape variety or vintage (Gougeon et al., 2019).

Increasing drought is the most important impact of the ongoing climate change in the Mediterranean Basin, and it is predicted to result in productivity decreases and changes in grape quality.

In this video recording of the IVES science meeting 2021, Fulvio Mattivi (Fondazione Edmund Mach, Centro Ricerca ed Innovazione, San Michele all’Adige, Italy) speaks about the effects of water deficit on secondary metabolites in grapes and wines. This presentation is based on an original article accessible for free on OENO One.