Organic mulches improve vine vigour, yield and physiological response in a semi-arid region

The use of oenological tannins during winemaking has been mostly studied for improving colour traits and stability on red wines. Their effectiveness mainly depends on the tannin composition, grape variety and winemaking approach [1].

In its 2020 beating cancer plan, the european commission announced plans for mandatory warning signs for alcoholic beverages. However, no concrete legislative proposal has been put forward so far. Instead, ireland passed national legislation in 2023 that requires warning signs for all alcoholic beverages from 2026. Despite significant effects for the common market, the eu commission did not this challenge this law in the so-called tris notification procedure. We argue that the commission’s inaction is consistent with the case law of the european court of justice: in the absence of harmonized rules, member states have a large margin of discretion to enact national health measures.

The author presents the geographical position of Romania as a vine-growing European country and analyses its relief and climate as factors of paramount importance for vine-growing environments. The climatogram system and the oenoclimatic aptitude index are applied in an analysis of the climatic characteristics of the Romanian vine-growing reg ions.

As elsewhere, southwestern France vineyards face more recurrent summer heat waves these last years. Among the possibilities of adaptation to this climate changing parameter, the use of net shading is a technique that allow for limiting canopy exposure to radiations. In this trial, we tested net shading installed on one face of the canopy, on a north-south row-oriented plot of cv. Gros Manseng trained on VSP system in the PDO Pacherenc-du-Vic-Bilh. The purpose was to characterize the effects on the ambient canopy temperatures and radiations during the season and to observe the consequences on the composition of grapes and wines. Two sorts of net were used with two levels of obstruction (50% and 75%) of the photosynthesis active radiation (PAR). They have been installed on the west side of the canopy and compared to a netless control. Temperature and PAR sensors registered hourly data during the season. On specific summer day (hot and sunny) manual measurements took also place on bunches (temperature) and in different spots of the canopy (PAR). The results showed that, on clear days, the radiation is lowered by the shade nets respecting the supplier criteria. The effects on the ambient canopy temperature were inconstant on this plot when we observed the data from the global period of shading between fruit set and harvest. However, during hot days (>30°C), the temperature in the canopy was reduced during afternoon and the temperature of the bunch surface was reduced as well comparing to the control. A decrease of the maturity parameters of the berries, sugar and acidity, was also observed. Concerning the wine aromatic potential, no differences clearly appeared.

In viticoltura, la comprensione dell’influenza della temperatura dell’aria sulla dinamica della maturazione assume importante rilievo in relazione all’ ottimizzazione dell’ epoca di raccolta da cui dipende in modo significativo la qualità del prodotto finale.