Observation and modeling of climate at fine scales in wine-producing areas

The increasing vulnerability of viticulture to climate change necessitates innovative solutions to improve its sustainability and resilience.

As six on the nine planetary boundaries have already been crossed, putting our safe life on Earth at risk (Rockström et al., 2024) and agriculture is significantly responsible for it (Campbell et al., 2017), viticulture, faces the challenge of reducing its environmental impacts through fundamental changes to its practices.

Today’s viticulture faces a considerable challenge dealing with fungal diseases and limitations on the use of plant protection products (PPP) have increased the pressure to find more sustainable alternatives. One strategy may be the development and cultivation of disease-resistant grapevine varieties (PIWI) that could maintain crop productivity and quality while reducing dependence on PPP. In this work a set of 9 PIWI varieties (5 white and 4 red) deploying genes for resistance to powdery and downy mildew were evaluated in two consecutive years in Valdegón, La Rioja, with Tempranillo and Viura as controls. The objective was to correlate agronomic performance and disease incidence with the presence of disease resistance genes in two different seasons: with (2023) and without disease pressure (2022).

Sensory analysis of grape berries is a common tool to evaluate the degree of grape maturation and to make sound picking decisions.

Botrytis cinerea causes grey mold that results in severe problems for wine makers worldwide. Infected grapes lead to quality deterioration including formation of off-flavors or browning. The latter is caused by the enzyme laccase which is capable of oxidizing a wide range of phenolic compounds. Since the use of conventional pesticides is associated with many concerns of consumers and authorities regarding environmental and health related issues and may result in fungicide resistance, the development of green alternatives is gaining more attention.