Terroir 2010 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 Effects of post-veraison irrigation dose on Cabernet-Sauvignon vines in a dry and warm season in Valencia, Spain

Effects of post-veraison irrigation dose on Cabernet-Sauvignon vines in a dry and warm season in Valencia, Spain

Abstract

In the old-world viticulture, there is a common but most often not scientifically proved consideration that supplemental irrigation should detrimentally affect berry and wine composition. In the semi-arid and warm climate of in-land Valencia we tested the hypothesis that deficit irrigation might, not only improve yield, but also fruit composition. The experiment was performed with Cabernet Sauvignon vines at the Celler del Roure SL vineyard, located in the D.O. Valencia. Rainfed vines were compared with three different post-veraison irrigation regimes with water application at either 10, 20, or 30% of reference evapotranspiration, resulting in water application of 26, 34 and 57, mm respectively. The experimental design was a randomised block with three replicates per treatment and 308 experimental vines per experimental plot. The experiment was conducted in the very dry and warm 2009 season, with substantial no rainfall from august up to harvest and average temperature during ripening of 24ºC. Rain-fed vines experienced quite severe plant water stress with an average midday stem water potential of -1.45 MPa. Supplemental irrigation improved plant water status and increased yield in proportion to the amount of water applied mostly because irrigation avoided berry and whole clusters dehydration that occurred in the rainfed vines during ripening. The most important effect of irrigation was to avoid the excessive increase in berry sugar content that, at the right phenolic ripening time, reached in the rainfed treatment up to 16.5º of probable alcohol. Irrigation did not affect must acidity and improved berry quality determined with a berry tasting panel. In addition the supplemental irrigation did not decrease total berry phenolic and anthocyanin potential. On the other hand irrigation slightly decreased the extractable values. This suggests that different maceration procedures should be applied depending on grape origin. Under very dry and warm seasons, irrigation can be used to mitigate the negative effect of low plant water status on berry dehydration and unbalanced ripening.

DOI:

Publication date: December 3, 2021

Issue: Terroir 2010

Type: Article

Authors

I. Gómez (1), J. Ortega (2), I. Álvarez (3), M.J. García-Esparza (3), D. S. Intrigliolo (4)

(1) Tresge Wine Consulting S.L., Ctra. Malilla 25-20, 46026 Valencia, Spain
(2) Celler del Roure SL. , Ctra. Les Alcusses, Km 2.5, 46640 Moixent, Valencia, Spain
(3) Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. Dept Tecnología de los Alimento, Camino de Vera s/n, Valencia, Spain
(4) Instituto Valenciano Investigaciones Agrarias. Centro Agricultura Sostenible. Apartado oficial 46113, Moncada, Valencia, Spain

Contact the author

Keywords

Deficit irrigation, phenolics, total soluble solids, yield

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Terroir 2010

Citation

Related articles…

VINIoT – Precision viticulture service

The project VINIoT pursues the creation of a new technological vineyard monitoring service, which will allow companies in the wine sector in the SUDOE space to monitor plantations in real time and remotely at various levels of precision. The system is based on spectral images and an IoT architecture that allows assessing parameters of interest viticulture and the collection of data at a precise scale (level of grape, plant, plot or vineyard) will be designed. In France, three subjects were specifically developed: evaluation of maturity, of water stress, and detection of flavescence dorée. For the evaluation of maturity, it has been decided first to work at the berry scale in the laboratory, then at the bunch scale and finally in the vineyard. The acquisition of the spectral hyperstal image as well as the reference analyzes to measure the maturity, were carried out in the laboratory after harvesting the berries in a maturity monitoring context. This work focuses on a case study to predict sugar content of three different grape varieties: Syrah, Fer Servadou and Mauzac. A robust method called Roboost-PLSR, developed in the framework of this work (Courand et al., 2022), to improve prediction model performance was applied on spectra after the acquirement of hyperspectral images. Regarding the evaluation of water stress, to work with a significant variability in terms of water status, it has been worked first with potted plants under 2 different water regimes. The facilities have allowed the supervision of irrigation and micro-climatic conditions. The regression models on agronomic variables (stomatal conductance, water potential, …) are studied. To detect flavescence dorée, the experimental plan has consisted of work at leaf scale in the laboratory first, and then in the field. To detect the disease from hyper-spectral imaging, a combination of multivariate curve resolution-alternating least squares (MCR-ALS) and factorial discriminant analysis (FDA) was proposed. This strategy proved the potential towards the discrimination of healthy and infected leaves by flavescence dorée based on the use of hyperspectral images (Mas Garcia et al., 2021).

Effects of graft quality on growth and grapevine-water relations

Climate change is challenging viticulture worldwide compromising its sustainability due to warmer temperatures and the increased frequency of extreme events. Grafting Vitis vinifera L.

20-Year-Old data set: scion x rootstock x climate, relationships. Effects on phenology and sugar dynamics

Global warming is one of the biggest environmental, social, and economic threats. In the Douro Valley, change to the climate are expected in the coming years, namely an increase in average temperature and a decrease in annual precipitation. Since vine cultivation is extremely vulnerable and influenced by the climate, these changes are likely to have negative effects on the production and quality of wine.
Adaptation is a major challenge facing the viticulture sector where the choice of plant material plays an important role, particularly the rootstock as it is a driver for adaptation with a wide range of effects, the most important being phylloxera, nematode and salt, tolerance to drought and a complex set of interactions in the grafted plant.
In an experimental vineyard, established in the Douro Region in 1997, with four randomized blocs, with five varieties, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Barroca, Touriga Franca and Tinta Roriz, grafted in four rootstocks, Rupestris du Lot, R110, 196-17C, R99 and 1103P, data was collected consecutively over 20 years (2001-2020). Phenological observations were made two to three times a week, following established criteria, to determine the average dates of budbreak, flowering and veraison. During maturation, weekly berry samples were taken to study the dynamics of sugar accumulation, amongst other parameters. Climate data was collected from a weather station located near the vineyard parcel, with data classified through several climatic indices.
The results achieved show a very low coefficient of variations in the average date of the phenophases and an important contribution from the rootstock in the dynamic of the phenology, allowing a delay in the cycle of up to10-12 days for the different combinations. The Principal Component Analysis performed, evaluating trends in the physical-chemical parameters, highlighted the effect of the climate and rootstock on fruit quality by grape varieties.

Bioclimatic shifts and land use options for Viticulture in Portugal

Land use, plays a relevant role in the climatic system. It endows means for agriculture practices thus contributing to the food supply. Since climate and land are closely intertwined through multiple interface processes, climate change may lead to significant impacts in land use. In this study, 1-km observational gridded datasets are used to assess changes in the Köppen–Geiger and Worldwide Bioclimatic (WBCS)

Making sense of available information for climate change adaptation and building resilience into wine production systems across the world

Effects of climate change on viticulture systems and winemaking processes are being felt across the world. The IPCC 6thAssessment Report concluded widespread and rapid changes have occurred, the scale of recent changes being unprecedented over many centuries to many thousands of years. These changes will continue under all emission scenarios considered, including increases in frequency and intensity of hot extremes, heatwaves, heavy precipitation and droughts. Wine companies need tools and models allowing to peer into the future and identify the moment for intervention and measures for mitigation and/or avoidance. Previously, we presented conceptual guidelines for a 5-stage framework for defining adaptation strategies for wine businesses. That framework allows for direct comparison of different solutions to mitigate perceived climate change risks. Recent global climatic evolution and multiple reports of severe events since then (smoke taint, heatwave and droughts, frost, hail and floods, rising sea levels) imply urgency in providing effective tools to tackle the multiple perceived risks. A coordinated drive towards a higher level of resilience is therefore required. Recent publications such as the Australian Wine Future Climate Atlas and results from projects such as H2020 MED-GOLD inform on expected climate change impacts to the wine sector, foreseeing the climate to expect at regional and vineyard scale in coming decades. We present examples of practical application of the Climate Change Adaptation Framework (CCAF) to impacts affecting wine production in two wine regions: Barossa (Australia) and Douro (Portugal). We demonstrate feasibility of the framework for climate adaptation from available data and tools to estimate historical climate-induced profitability loss, to project it in the future and to identify critical moments when disruptions may occur if timely measures are not implemented. Finally, we discuss adaptation measures and respective timeframes for successful mitigation of disruptive risk while enhancing resilience of wine systems.