Investigating water stress-related seasonal and spatial patterns and the possible links with juice and wine compositional parameters

According to OIV reports, annual world wine consumption fluctuated around 240-245 mln hL over the past decade. The general market globalization has led to the situation when almost half of the consumed wine is exported to other countries. Of this volume, more than 60 mln hL are bottled still and sparkling wines.

In the bottom of Val d’Illasi (Verona province), one of the major valleys which passes through the Lessini mountains, viticulture is widely extended. In the territory belonging to Illasi and Tregnago villages, which includes ca. 1100 ha of vineyards, devoted to produce Soave and Valpolicella DOC wines, an experimental survey was conducted on a network of twenty five reference vineyards.

The actual demand by consumers for safer and healthier food and beverage is pushing the wine sector to find alternative methods to avoid the use of sulphur dioxide in winemaking. Ozone is already used in the wine industry to produce sulphur dioxide-free wines through the patented method Purovino®.

Trellis systems are selected in wine grape vineyards to mainly maximize vineyard yield and maintain berry quality. This study was conducted in 2020 and 2021 to evaluate six commonly utilized trellis systems including a vertical shoot positioning (VSP), two relaxed VSPs (VSP60 and VSP80), a single high wire (SH), a high quadrilateral (HQ), and a guyot (GY), combined with three levels of irrigation regimes based on different crop evapotranspiration (ETc) replacements, including a 25% ETc, 50% ETc, and 100% ETc. The results indicated SH yielded the most fruits and accumulated the most total soluble solids (TSS) at harvest in 2020, however, it showed the lowest TSS in the second season. In 2020, SH and HQ showed higher concentrations in most of the anthocyanin derivatives compared to the VSPs. Similar comparisons were noticed in 2021 as well. SH and HQ also accumulated more flavonols in both years compared to other trellis systems. Overall, this study provides information on the efficacy of trellis systems on grapevine yield and berry flavonoid accumulation in a currently warming climate.

Over the last decade, much attention has been paid on the oxidative susceptibility of white wines, given its key role in determining their ageing potential.