Smartphone application use as a tool for water supply management

Climate change is introducing a high variability on grape ripening, causing uncertainty, excessive spending on pesticides and eventually frustrating results in terms of the quality of the vintage, with the increasingly frequent appearance of aromatic problems associated with overripeness, raisining and greenness, which sometimes only appear in bottled wines.

Characterize taste and mouthfeel properties of grapes elicited by the phenolic fraction (PF) of grape berries and establish relationships with chemical variables. METHODS: As many as 31 diverse grape lots of Tempranillo Tinto and Garnacha Tinta from three different regions were harvested. Grapes were destemmed and macerated in 15% of ethanol for one week and extracts were submitted to solid phase extraction. The recovered polyphenolic fraction was reconstituted in wine model and characterized by a panel of 21 wine experts employing a list of 23 taste and mouthfeel-related attributes following a rate-k-attributes methodology. RESULTS: Six significant attributes among the 31 samples differed based on ANOVA results: “dry”, “coarse”, “bitter”, “dry on tongue”, “sticky” and “watery”. PCA with VARIMAX algorithm was calculated.

Traditional viticulture areas have experienced in the last decades an intensification of field practices, linked to an increased use of fertilisers and phytosanitary products, and to a more intensive mechanization and uniformization of the landscape. This change in management has sometimes led to higher rates of soil erosion andloss of soil structure, fertility decline, groundwater contamination, and to an increased pressure of pests and diseases. Additionally, intensification usually leads to a simplification of landscapes, of particular concern in prestigious wine grape regions where the economical revenue encourages the conversion of land use from natural habitats to high value wine grape production. To revert this trend, it is necessary that growers implement actions that promote biodiversity in their vineyards. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of the implementation of cover crops, vegetational corridors, dry stone walls and vineyard biodiversity hotspots estimated through the study of arthropods. The work has been carried out in four vineyards in Rioja Alavesa belonging to Ostatu winery, where these infrastructures were implemented in 2020. The presence and diversity of arthropods was studied by capturing them at different times in the season and at different distances from the infrastructure using pit-fall traps in the soil and yellow, white and blue chromatic traps at the canopy level. This is a preliminary study in which all adult insects were sorted to the taxonomic level of order and Coleoptera were classified to morphospecies. The results obtained show that there is a relationship between the basic characteristics of the vineyard and the arthropods captured, with a positive effect, although also dependent on the vineyard, of the presence of infrastructure.

Supercritical carbon dioxide (sc-CO2) extraction is an environmentally friendly technology employed for bioactive compounds recovery from various natural sources and biomasses. The advantages of sc-co2 extraction include its selectivity, relatively mild operating conditions, which minimize the degradation of sensitive compounds, and the absence of potentially harmful organic solvents.

The presence of undesirable compounds in wines, such as OTA, biogenic amines and pesticides residues, affects wine quality and can cause health problems for the consumer. The main tool that a winemaker has to reduce their content in the wine is fining. However, some of the fining agents commonly used in the winery can cause allergies or even increase the protein content in the wine, increasing the turbidity. To avoid these problems, the use of plant fibers may be an alternative, such as those from grape pomace[1] or other plant origins.