Ripening of Vitis vinifera grapes varieties in São Joaquim, a new wine growing region, Southern Brazil

Must clarification is an important step occurring just after grape extraction in the elaboration of white wine, consisting in a solid-liquid separation. Traditionally, low must turbidity, around 50-150 NTU, is generally reached in white winemaking in order to prevent reductive aromas and facilitating alcoholic fermentation. Alternatively, a higher turbidity (300 NTU or above) can be sought for reasons such as a better expression of grapes identity (terroir), or for getting a must matrix that could supposedly lead to wines having greater ageing potential.

Water availability is the most limiting factor for vineyard productivity under Mediterranean conditions. Due to the effects caused by the current climate change, wine-growing regions may face serious soil moisture conservation problems, due to the lower water retention capacity of the soil and higher soil irradiation. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effects of soil recharge irrigation in pre-sprouting and summer irrigation every week (30 % ETo) from the pea size state until the end of ripening (RP) compared to exclusively summer irrigation every week (R) in the same way that RP, on berry phenolic composition at harvest.

One of the ways to reduce the use of pesticides is to adapt their dosage to the needs of the plant by using variable rate technology for managing field spatial variability. The recent evolution of technologies in the field of robotics, mechatronics and new information and communication technologies

Grapevine resilience to climate change has become one of the most pressing topics in the Viticulture & Enology field. Vineyard health demands understanding the mechanisms that explain the direct and indirect interactions between environmental stressors. The current climate change scenario, where drought and heat-wave are more frequent and intense, strongly demands improving our knowledge of environmental stresses. During a heatwave, the ambient temperature rises above the plant’s average tolerance threshold and, generally, above 35 oC plant’s adaptation to heat stress is activated.

Dating back to the early domestication period of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.), expansion of human activity led to the creation of thousands of modern day genotypes that serve multiple purposes such as table and wine consumption. They also encompass a strong phenotypic diversity. Presently, viticulture faces various challenges, which include threatening climatic change scenarios and an historical track record of genetic erosion. Paritularly with regards to wine varieties, there is a pressing need to characterize the extant genetic diversity of modern varieties, as a means to delvier knowledge-based solutions under a rapidly evolving scenario, that may enable improved yields and profiles, resistance to pathogens, and increased resilience to climate change.