Precision viticulture: using on-board sensors to map vine variability and characterize vine trajectories

Italy is a rich hub of viticultural biodiversity harboring hundreds of indigenous grape varieties that have adapted over centuries to the diverse climatic and geographic conditions of its regions. Preserving this biodiversity is essential for maintaining a diversified genetic pool, crucial for addressing future challenges such as climate change and emerging plant diseases. Rising temperatures, precipitation pattern variations, and extreme weather events can affect grape ripening, crop quality, and contribute to disease development. Integrated disease management necessitates exploration of novel strategies. Biotechnologies emerge as a significant player in tackling modern viticulture challenges.

The influence of climatic conditions on the development of the vine and on the quality of the wines no longer needs to be demonstrated at the scale of the vineyard, by the regional climatic characteristics, determining on this scale the viticultural potentialities (Huglin, 1978; Branas, 1946; Riou et al ., 1994); but also on a local scale, at the level of the basic terroir unit (Morlat, 1989), by the landscape differentiation of the natural environment inducing climatic variability within the same vineyard, and partly explaining differences in functioning of the vine, in connection with the processes of maturation and the quality of the wine (Becker, 1977 and 1984; Morlat, 1989 and Lebon, 1993a). According to these authors, the climatic diversity in a wine region constitutes in addition to the edaphic component, an important component of characterization of the Basic Terroir Units (UTB).

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A tre anni dal suo inizio, nel 1997 si è conclusa la prima fase della ricerca “Caratterizzazione della produzione DOC Soave”. Lo studio ha basato il suo percorso sperimentale su alcuni punti fondamentali tra i quali:
• Recupero di tutte le informazioni storico-colturali sul vino Soave e sul suo territorio di produzione.

Rosé wine consumption is rapidly increasing with its market share in France that has grown from 11 % to 32 % in less than 20 years. A recent trend is also to produce rosé wines with lighter colors. Varieties, terroir and technology certainly have an influence on rosé wine colors.

‘Vignoles’ is an aromatic, white-fruited wine grape variety valued by growers and wineries in the Eastern United States. Vignoles is grown in diverse locations in New York, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Nebraska and Michigan. Consumers recognize and value the variety for its special wine quality.