Ancient and recent construction of Terroirs

Flavescence dorée (FD) stands out as a significant grapevine disease with severe implications for vineyards. The American grapevine leafhopper (Scaphoideus titanus) serves as the primary vector, transmitting the pathogen that causes yield losses and elevated costs linked to uprooting and replanting. Another potential vector of FD is the mosaic leafhopper, Orientus ishidae, commonly found in agroecosystems. The current monitoring approach involves periodic human identification of chromotropic traps, a labor-intensive and time-consuming process.

Barolo DOCG is an economically important wine producing region in Northwest Italy. It is a small region of approximately 70 km2 gross area. The topography is very complex with steep sloped hills ranging in elevation from below 200 m to 550 m. Barolo DOCG wine is made exclusively from the Nebbiolo grape. Bioclimatic indexes are often used in viticulture to gain a better understanding of broader climate trends which can be compared temporally and geographically. These indexes are also used for identifying potential phenological timing, growing region suitability, and potential risks associated with expected climatic changes. Understanding how topography influences bioclimatic indexes can help with understanding of mesoscale climate behaviour leading to improved decision making and risk management strategies. The average monthly maximum and minimum temperatures, the Cool Night Index, the Huglin Index, and the monthly diurnal range (from July to October) were calculated using data from 45 weather stations within a 40 km radius of the Barolo DOCG growing area between the years 1996 and 2019. Linear and multiple regression models were developed using independent variables (elevation, aspect, slope) extracted from a digital elevation model to identify significant relationships. Bioclimatic indexes were then kriged with external drift using independent variables that showed significant relationships with the bioclimatic index using a 100 m resolution grid. The maximum monthly temperatures and the Huglin Index showed consistent significant negative relationships with elevation in all years. The minimum monthly temperatures showed no relationship with elevation but in some months a small but significant relationship was observed with aspect. Due to the lack of a relationship between minimum monthly temperatures and elevation compared to the significant relationship between maximum monthly temperatures and elevation, monthly diurnal range had a negative relationship with elevation.

Alcoholic fermentation is the main step for winemaking, mainly performed by the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. But other wine yeasts called non-Saccharomyces may contribute to alcoholic fermentation and modulate the wine aroma complexity. The recurrent problem with the use of these non-Saccharomyces yeasts is their trend to die off prematurely during alcoholic fermentation, leading to a lack of their interesting aromatic properties searched in the desired wine. This phenomenon appears to be mainly due to interactions with S. cerevisiae. These interactions are often negatives but remain unclear because of the species and strain specific response. Among the non-Saccharomyces yeasts, Lachancea thermotolerans is a wine yeast naturally found in grape must and well known as a great L-lactic acid producer and an aromatic molecules enhancer, but its behavior during alcoholic fermentation can be completely different in co-fermentation with S. cerevisiae in function of strain used.

After the onset of grape berry ripening, phloem unloading follows an apoplasmic route into the mesocarp tissue. In the apoplast, most of the unloaded sucrose is cleaved by cell wall invertases

Yield monitoring can provide the winegrowers with information for precise production inputs during the season, thereby, ensuring the best possible harvest. Yield estimation is currently achieved through an intensive process that is destructive and time-consuming. However, remote sensing provides a group of proximal technologies and techniques for a non-destructive and less time-consuming method for yield monitoring.The objective of this study was to analyse three different approaches, for measuring grapevine yield close to harvest.