Influence of edapho-climatic factors on grape quality in Conca de Barberà vineyards (Catalonia, Spain)

Il mondo del vino si è accorto che per la sua comprensione, valorizzazione e promozione è fondamentale conoscere le ragioni geologiche del vino, valutare il suo impatto sul paesaggio e acquisire il suo valore emozionale.

Although some wine production processes still rely on post-production evaluation and off-site laboratory analysis, the new winemaking industry is aware of a need for a better knowledge of the process to improve the properties of the final product. Thus, more and more wineries are interested in incorporating quality-by-design (QbD) strategies instead of postproduction testing because of the possibility to early detect deviations in fermentation or any other wine process. This would allow to detect unwanted situations and eventually to ‘readjust’ the process, thus minimizing rejects.

Climate change results in erratic weather conditions, which may lead for many crops including grapevine, to a reduced production and products of lower quality. Concerning grapevine, climate change results in shorter growing seasons and dates for budbreak, flowering and fruit maturity occur earlier in many regions. It also leads to an increase of various pests and diseases, as well as the vectors responsible for disease distribution.

Sulfonated monomeric and dimeric flavan-3-ols are recently discovered in wine and proved to have great importance in understanding wine chemistry and quality [1, 2].

The effects of climate change produce an increase in sugar concentration and a decrease in acidity, without reaching the optimum grape phenolic maturity [1]. The aim of this work was to characterize 25 white grape varieties