Monitoring water deficit in vineyards by means of Red and Infrared measurements

The Valpolicella area (Veneto Region, Italy) is famous for its high quality wines: Amarone and Recioto, both obtained from partial post-harvest dehydrated red grapes. The main cultivars used for these wines are Corvina and Corvinone. In this Region hundreds of years ago a particular training system (Pergola, cordon/cane with horizontal shoot-positioning) was developed. In the last 20 years the Guyot have been introduced in the area; now Pergola and Guyot are equally widespread in the Valpolicella area. In two different environmental conditions (hill and floodplain) two vineyards, one for each type of training system, were studied along two years (2011-2012).

This study is aimed to develop a complete tool for the winemaker with, complete and targeted “winemaking recipes” that can be adapted to criteria set by the winemaker, such as: grape variety, grape health status, degree of ripening, desired wine, redox status throughout the alcoholic fermentation.
To get such aim, specific sets of experiments using red grape juices from different varieties (Nebbiolo, Barbera, Pinot noir, etc.) collected at different technological and phenolic maturity points, will be held with “automatized 4.0 tanks” equipped with sensors for measuring: redox potential, dissolved oxygen, relative density, temperature, and color in order to collect a sufficient amount of data preparatory to the creation of operating models in the most widely winemaking situations in which the automatized 4.0 tanks “will be able to independently respond” with the right corrective actions (opening/closing aeration valve, execution/block pumping overs , etc.) if the key parameters exceed the limits of the recommended ranges set in the selected recipe.

Nitrogen fertilisation of grapevines is known to influence not only plant development and production yield, but also yeast assimilable nitrogen (YAN). This parameter is related to the growth of yeast

It seems implausible that the geographical development of the vineyards could have been affected by a shift in the positions of the Earth’continents

Une étude a été menée pendant neuf ans sur deux vignes non-irriguées de Sauvignon blanc commercialisés, plantées à différentes localités (A et B) dans le district de Stellenbosch. Deux parcelles expérimentales, situées sur deux formations géologiques différentes, ont été identifiées au sein de chaque vignoble. A chaque localité une des