Analysis of climatic changes in different areas of Abruzzo region (Central Italy): implications for grape growing

Nowadays, winemaking is dealing with great challenges, notably climate change, disease resistance and low pesticide inputs, desire for more sustainable agricultural productions and permanent changing of consumer preference. Trying to propose practice improvements, scientists are exploring vine hybridization a paradoxically old but still actual way to take up such challenges

Excessive fertilization of the vineyard leads to low quality grapes, increased costs and a negative impact on the environment. In order to establish an integrated management system aimed at a sustainable fertilization of the vineyards, nutritional reference levels were established. For this purpose, 30 representative vineyards of the Albariño variety were studied, in which soil and petiole analyses were carried out for two years and grape yield and quality at harvest were measured. In both years of study, soil pH, calcium, sodium and cation exchange capacity were positively correlated with calcium content and negatively correlated with manganese in grapes. Irrigated vineyards had higher levels of aluminium in soil and lower levels of calcium in petiole. Climatic conditions were very different in the years of the study. The year 2019 was colder than usual, in 2020 there was a marked water stress with high summer temperatures. This resulted in medium-high acidity in grapes in 2019 and low acidity in 2020, with sugar levels being similar both years. A very marked decrease in must amino nitrogen was observed in 2020, with ammonia nitrogen remaining stable. The correlation of acidity and sugar values in grapes with soil and petiole analysis data made it possible to establish reference levels for the nutritional diagnosis of the Albariño variety in this region. Based on these results, an easy-to-use TIC application is currently being created for grapegrowers, aimed at improving the sustainability of the vineyard through reasoned fertilization. This study has now been extended to other Galician vine varieties.

Water deficit profoundly impacts the quality of grapes and results in considerable reductions in crop yield. First symptoms manifest with reduced stomatal conductance and transpiration, accompanied by the wilting of apical leaves and tendrils. So far, there is no available data on the water stress response in Croatian grapevine germplasm. Therefore, objective of this study was to determine influence of genotype and treatment on stomatal conductance (gsw), transpiration (E), electron transport rate (ETR), and quantum efficiency in light (PhiPS2).

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Blending wines from different grape varieties is often used in order to increase wine complexity and balance. Due to their popularity, several types of blends such as the Bordeaux blend, are protected by PDO legislation.