Understanding and managing wine production from different terroirs

Barrel ageing is a crucial step in the wine process because it allows many changes to the wine as enrichment, colour stabilization, clarification and also a slow oxygenation. Effects of the oak barrel have to be known to prevent oxidation of the wine. The type of bung used during ageing is also a parameter to consider. Ageing sweet wines in barrel is a real challenge. These wines may need some oxygen at the beginning of ageing but they should be protected at the end of their maturation, to avoid oxidation.

Sixty five % of the agricultural area of the Basque Country located in the DO Ca Rioja corresponds to vineyards. More than 40% of it has an average slope greater than 10%, which makes it sensitive to erosive processes. Furthermore, it is foreseeable that extreme weather events (storms, hail, extreme heat and cold, etc.) will be favored due to climate change. Cover cropping can mitigate this risk, and therefore the objective of this work is to evaluate the impact that a vegetable cover has on the agronomic behavior of the vineyard, the quality of the grape and soil erosion. For this, a trial has been carried out with a Graciano variety vineyard with a slope between 10% -20% during the years 2020 and 2021. Conventional tillage management in the area has been compared (4-6 passes per year of tillage machinery) versus spontaneous vegetation cover management in the vineyard. This implies not tilling and allowing the grass of the land to colonize the range between the lines of vines, controlling their height through 1-3 mowing passes per year, always trying to affect the surface of the land as little as possible. The vegetative growth, yield and quality of the grape and wine was measured. Furthermore, erosion has been measured using Gerlasch boxes. The yield was lower in the second year of the trial in the cover crop treatment, but erosion was significantly reduced.

Wine acidity is a parameter of great importance that influences different quality factors of the product such as biological stability or organoleptic characteristics. In the current context of climate change, which gives rise to wines with higher levels of ethanol and lower acidity, the biological acidification with yeast species such as Lachancea thermotolerans could be a solution.
In this work, the effect of the inoculation of different L. thermotolerans on the acidity of wine was studied.

Obiettivo generale di questo documenta è fornire un metodo di pianificazione che superi l’organizzazione delle aree rurali, ed in particolare vitate, finalizzata unicamente all’ot­timizzazione economico produttiva delle aziende, verso una pianificazione integrata degli spazi aperti.

The year-on-year rise in temperatures and the increase in extreme weather events due to climate change are already having an impact on agriculture. Among the perennial fruit species, grapevine is already negatively impacted by these events through an acceleration of its phenology, more damage from late frosts or through an increase in the sugar level of the berries (and therefore the alcoholic degree of the wine) and a decrease of acidity, impacting the wine quality. Sun’Agri, in partnership with INRAE, Chambre d’agriculture du Vaucluse, Chambre d’agriculture des Pyrénées-Orientales and IFV, developed a protection system based on dynamic agrivoltaics to protect grapevine. It consists of photovoltaic solar panels positioned above the crop, high enough not to impede the passage of agricultural machinery, and tiltable from +/- 90° to adjust the level of shading on the vineyard. These smart louvers, driven by artificial intelligence (physical models & plant growth models), are steered according to the plant’s needs and provide real climate protection.