Il Soave: esempio di cultura e di scienza

Grapevines are an important economic crop grown in temperate climates of both hemispheres characterized by short‐term heat spells and heat waves

Rare Earth Elements (REEs) include 15 lanthanides, yttrium and scandium. Their occurrence in soil and plants seems to be closely tied to the geological composition of the underlying mother rock, to the physical and chemical properties of the soil and to the specific ability of the plant to take up and accumulate these microelements.

The study of the interaction between vineyards and the environment to establish the grapevines in the appropriate places has been applied in wine science for 5000 years. Advances in the field of the zoning have not been uniform in time, and have occupied a preferential place in the contributions of Roman writers of the 1st Century AC, the contemplations of Tokay (1700) and Porto (1756) and works of the second half of the 20th century. Zoning practices today integrate multidisciplinary methodologies (viticulture, enology, soils, climatology, cartography, statistics, computer science) and require further development for future application.

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.

Fungal bunch rots of grapes cause major losses to grape yield worldwide, yet the impact these moulds have on grape and wine quality is not well characterised. We sought to investigate the formation of unwanted volatile compounds of fungal origin in both synthetic grape juice culture media and in inoculated grape berries. Botrytis cinerea, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus carbonarius, or Pencillium expansum were grown in synthetic grape juice medium and the culture homogenates analysed 4 and 7 days post inoculation. HS-SPME-GC-MS analysis of the culture homogenates 4 days post inoculation demonstrated that each of the fungi examined produced varying quantities of the mushroom or fungus-like aroma compounds, 1-Octen-3-ol, 1-Octen-3-one and 3-Octanone with A. carbonarius producing up to ten times the amounts of all three metabolites per mg of dry mycelium.