How artificial intelligence (AI) is helping winegrowers to deal with adversity from climate change

The amount of synthetic pesticides applied in viticulture is relatively high compared to other agricultural crops, due to the high sensitivity of grapevine to diseases such as downy mildew (Plasmopora viticola). Alternatives to reduce fungicides are utterly needed to promote a sustainable vineyard-ecosystems and meet consumer acceptance. Essential oils (EOs) are amongst the most promising natural plant protection agents and have shown their antifungal properties previously. However, the efficiency of EOs depends highly on timing and application technique.

Wine lees are the second most important wine by-product in terms of quantity after grape stalk and marc. During aging on lees, it is well known that wine lees yield compounds that act as antioxydant. However the chemical nature of the compounds involved in this behavior (except polyphenols and glutathione) has not yet been totally elucidated. The scarce knowledge of wine lees composition and their potential exploitation make them a promising candidate to obtain new antioxidant products to be used in winemaking. In this study, an eco-sustainable approach to obtain lees extracts exhibiting antioxidant capacity is proposed. Such extracts could be used in a global enological strategy of sulfites level reduction.

Aims: The aims of this study were: (1) to compute recent-past thermal conditions over European vineyards, using state-of-the art bioclimatic indices: chilling portions and growing degree hours; (2) to compute future changes of these thermal conditions using a large ensemble of high-resolution climate models.

The addition of fungal chitosan in wine is allowed since 2009 to release some spoilage microorganisms such as Brettanomyces bruxellensis (OIV/OENO 338A/2009; EC 53/2011). This yeast is able to produce volatil phenols and is responsible of organoleptic deviations compromising quality and typicality of red wines [1]. Despite the fact that fungal chitosan is highly renewable, no toxic and non-allergenic, its use remains marginal because this treatment is relatively recent (compare to sulphites treatment) and information are contradictory between different studies described in literature. For all these reasons,

I territori della DOC “Terre dell’Alta Val d’Agri”, a Sud della regione Basilicata, si caratterizzano per una elevata biodiversità autoctona autoselezionatesi su ambienti ecologicamente ben definiti,