Smartphone application use as a tool for water supply management

As Vitis vinifera varieties are susceptible to fungal diseases, numerous chemical treatments are generally required to ensure the quantity and quality of the harvest. However, in the context of sustainable viticulture, there are increasing societal request, political incitation, and winegrowers’ awareness to reduce the use of pesticides.

Bottle aging is crucial for wine quality, influencing its chemical and sensory properties [1]. Ideally, a phase of qualitative ageing enhances sensory attributes before a decline in quality occurs. Understanding the impact of oenological variables on these phases is a key challenge in modern winemaking.

Aim: Pinot Blanc is the third most planted white wine grape in northern Italy’s region of South Tyrol, where small-scale viticultural production permits the examination of the wine’s diverse expressive potential in a small area across a wide range of climatic variables. This study aimed to explore the qualitative potential of Pinot Blanc across a range of climatic variation leading to site-specific terroir expression in a cool climate region.

Among the different strategies to cope with the negative impacts of climate change on viticulture, the exploitation of genetic diversity is one of the most promising to adapt to new conditions and maintain wine production and quality. One of the biggest concerns in the context of climate change is to improve water use efficiency (WUE). In this way, the use of genotypes that present a better response to drought and high WUE is a key issue. In this work, physiological performance analysis was conducted to compare the water deficit stress (WDS) responses of local and widespread grapevines cultivars. Leaf gas exchange, water use efficiency (WUE) at different levels (leaf and long-term WUE (∆13C)), leaf osmotic adjustment and other water relations parameters were determined in plants under well-watered and WDS conditions alongside assessment of the levels of foliar hormones concentrations. Results denote that local cultivars displayed better physiological performance under WDS as compared to the widely-distributed ones. he results corroborate the hypothesis that better stomatal control allows increasing leaf WUE under drought as occurred in the local Callet cv.; but the minority local cultivar Escursac cv. showed high WUE under both treatments. In this case, high WUE can be related to maintaining higher photosynthetic activity under drought. The different mechanisms underlying the better performance under WDS and high WUE of minority local cultivars are discussed.

Terroir leaves its mark on the accumulation of flavours in grape berries, triggering biochemical re-actions and ultimately shaping wine styles.