Remote sensing applications in viticulture: recent advances and new opportunities

La zonazione viticola rappresenta un importante strumento di indagine per valutare e interpretare le potenzialità produttive e qualitative di un territorio. Con l’obiettivo di studiare come l’ambiente influisca sulla qualità dell’uva nell’areale di Brisighella, sono stati monitorati, nelle annate 2007, 2008 e 2009, 14 vigneti per la varietà Albana e 38 per la varietà Sangiovese, rappresentativi di una area vitata di circa 1000 ha.

Sangiovese is one of Italy’s most cultivated grape varieties, and currently, over 130 different clones are registered in the national register of grape varieties. However, despite the sangiovese genome having been re-sequenced, limited molecular and genomic information is still available for this cultivar. The present study investigates the complexity of genotype-environment interactions of ten different Sangiovese clones, cultivated in the Chianti Rufina DOCG district over five consecutive vintages (2016-2020).

Estimation of vineyard leaf area index (LAI) is an important aspect for the winegrowers. However, tracking and monitoring are difficult tasks due to time constraints. Satellite and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imaging have become a practical monitoring method for LAI. Nevertheless, for a proper LAI determination, the image’s spatial resolution is a key factor, since low-resolution images are incapable of distinguishing between adjacent vines due to the large area covered in each pixel, this leads to misinterpretation or generalisation of vineyard information.

The aim of this work was the identification and quantification of polyphenols present in natural precipitate of a Sauvignon wine. Phenol analysis in wine precipitate was based on acid hydrolysis, CG- MS after derivatization, and LC-MS.

Temperature has a decisive influence on the growth and development of plants (Carbonneau et al., 1992). In particular, in the case of the vine, the temperature is an omnipresent variable in the climatic indices (Huglin, 1986). For reasons of convenience, these indices use the temperature of the air measured under shelter in a meteorological station, making the implicit hypothesis of a concordance between this temperature and that of the sites of perception of the thermal stimulus by the plant. However, development may be more dependent on soil temperature than air temperature (Kliewer, 1975). Morlat (1989) thus verified that the variability in the precocity of the vine, positively correlated with the quality of the harvest and of the wine in the Loire Valley, was mainly explained by differences in temperature of the root zones.