Evidence of successful wine business strategies: customer acquisition, value or retention?

G.r.a.s.p.o. Is not only the acronym for gruppo di ricerca per la salvaguardia e preservazione dell’originalità viticola di ogni territorio (‘research group for the safeguard and preservation of the originality of every territory’s grapes’), and is not just the italian synonym for ‘raspo’ (‘peduncle’) as treccani dictionary mentions: in the veneto dialect it is the whole bunch of grapes.

Worldwide, with an average of 6.7 million cultivated hectares, of which exclusively 51% in Europe (faostat, 2021), the production of table and wine grapes is a leading sector, with continued growth in Europe in the area devoted to vine cultivation. during the growing season, most of the plant organs can be susceptible to several fungal and oomycete diseases, leading to important economic losses and causing detrimental effects on fruit quality. the increasingly scarce availability of fungicidal products, often also related to their relative impact on the environment, coupled with the emergence of resistance in the pathogen to these products, make defence increasingly challenging.

The selection of ancient grapevine varieties aims to achieve genetic gains in several important traits that can make the variety more interesting for the objectives of the producers. Traditionally, yield and quality traits of the must have been considered for selection, but many others can be taken into account. Linear mixed models are fitted to the data to predict the empirical best linear unbiased predictors (EBLUPs) of genotypic effects for each evaluated trait, which will be the basis for selection.

The results of experimental studies of the method based on the usage of ethyl alcohol as an internal standard for the direct determination of volatile compounds in wines and others alcohol contained products are presented. The method was validated in terms of precision, accuracy, limits of detection and quantification (lod and loq), linearity, and robustness.

Antão Vaz is a Portuguese white grapevine variety grown mainly in the wine-growing regions of Southern Portugal, particularly in the Alentejo, Lisbon and Setúbal peninsula regions. It is a very vigorous and productive variety, giving the wines a strong identity. It needs heat and sunlight and prefers deep and dry soils, which makes it tolerant to scald caused by the high summer temperatures of Southern Portugal. However, this variety is very susceptible to downy mildew, caused by plasmopara viticola, a very destructive disease in years with rainy springs.