Hyperspectral imaging for the appraisal of varietal aroma composition along maturation in intact Vitis vinifera L. Tempranillo Blanco berries

The knowledge of the grape aromatic composition during ripening provides very important information for winegrowers, who may carry out different viticultural practices, or determine the harvest date more accurately. However, there are currently no tools that allow this measurement to be carried out in a non-invasive and rapid way. For this reason, the aim of this work was to design a non-invasive methodology, based on hyperspectral imaging to estimate the aromatic composition and total soluble solids (TSS) of Tempranillo Blanco berries during ripening.

Counting grape bunches using deep learning under different fruit and leaf occlusion conditions

Yield estimation is very important for the wine industry since provides useful information for vineyard and winery management. The early yield estimation of the grapevine provides information to winegrowers in making management decisions to achieve a better quantity and quality of grapes. In general, yield forecasts are based on destructive sampling of bunches and manual counting of berries per bunch and bunches per vine.

New satellite-based sampling protocols for grapevine nutrient monitoring

Extension specialists often recommend nutrient monitoring through leaf blade or petiole sampling twice a season for each vineyard block. However, due to the time and labor required to collect a large, random sample, many growers complete the task infrequently or incorrectly. Readily available remote sensing images capture the vineyard variability at both spatial and temporal scales, which can capture canopy and soil variability and be used to guide growers to representative sampling locations.

Using the fraction of transpirable soil water to estimate grapevine leaf water potential: comparing the classical statistical regression approach to machine learning algorithms

Weather uncertainty is forcing Mediterranean winegrowers to adopt new irrigation strategies to cope with water scarcity while ensuring a sustainable yield and improved berry and wine quality standards. Therefore, more accurate and high-resolution monitoring of soil water content and vine water status is a major concern. Leaf water potential measured at pre-dawn (PD) is considered to be in equilibrium with soil water potential and is highly correlated with soil water content at the soil depth where roots extract water.

Regenerative agricultural approaches to improve ecosystem services in Mediterranean vineyards

REVINE is a 3 year European projected funded by PRIMA programme which proposes the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices with an innovative and original perspective, in order to improve the resilience of vineyards to climate change in the Mediterranean area. The potential for innovation lies in developing and combining new approaches that make agriculture more environmentally sustainable and enable a circular economy capable of improving farmers’ incomes. Primarily REVINE aims to improve soil health and biodiversity by promoting the multiplication of soil saprophytic microorganisms and the presence of useful microorganisms linked to the life cycle of the plant, such as rhizobacteria (PGPR) and fungi (PGPF) that promote plant growth which, in addition to increasing plant performance, increase tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses.