Conventions and methods towards landscape quality: an application in the Douro (Portugal)

Wine authenticity and composition can be influenced by a range of membrane separation processes as reverse osmosis. In the context of climate change, the natural trend is to obtain wines with higher alcoholic concentration when classical winemaking methods are employed, and this may induce alteration of typicity of wines by masking the olfactory and taste properties. This study aimed to evaluate the influence of reverse osmosis techniques used for decrease of ethanol content on the stable isotopic ratios as markers for wine authenticity characteristics.

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.

Valbelluna valley is an area located in the northeastern Italy. It is extended from the East-West between Feltre and Belluno, along the Piave waterway and enclosed between Cansiglio valley on the South and the Dolomites in the North. Here, the villages of Limana and Trichiana are present, which are considered for decades potentially interesting areas to aim a niche production with own particular properties.The position of this area, its sun exposition, its soil composition and the microclimate, are ideal factors to obtain vines and consequently wines with unique features especially regarding the diversity and complexity aroma.

The Douro Demarcated Region, in Northern Portugal, offers outstanding wines with unique characteristics. Due to the today’s globalized marketplace, local producers often need to further develop their cultivation techniques to remain competitive. The Association of Viticultural Development in the Douro Valley (ADVID) works as a unit of experimentation, offering services and training to meet the demands of the Douro’s vitiviniculturists.

A «terroir» is a group of vineyards from the same region, belonging to a specific appellation, and sharing the same type of soil, weather conditions, grapes and wine making savoir-faire, which contribute its specific personality to the wine. White wine variety «Rebula» or «Ribolla gialla» is a local and traditional variety, which is mentioned already in XIII. century like variety for tax paying and merchandise.