Effect of winemaking practices on color indexes and selected bioactive phenolics of aglianico wine

Phenolic compounds are responsible for the sensory properties of wine as well as the properties beneficial to human health. The objective of this study was to establish the effect of the use of SO2 and pectolitic enzymes in the prefermentative phase, maceration time, and oak aging on color, anthocyanins, tannins, (+)-catechin, (-)-epicatechin, rutin, trans-resveratrol, and quercetin content of Aglianico wine. Color indexes and phenolics were analyzed by HPLC and spectrophotometric methods. The addition of SO2 and pectolitic enzymes before fermentation caused an increase in color intensity, color stability, total phenolics, anthocyanins, (+)-catechin, (-)-epicatechin rutin, trans-resveratrol, and quercetin content in Aglianico wine. Longer maceration times gave wines richer in total phenolics and with better chromatic characteristics. Storage in oak caused a decrease in anthocyanins, (+)-catechin, (-)-epicatechin, trans-resveratrol, and quercetin content but an increase in total phenolic content, and a stabilizing effect on color also occurred. © 2007 Institute of Food Technologists

A smart multiple spatial and temporal resolution system to support precision agriculture from satellite images: Proof of concept on Aglianico vineyard

In this century, one of the main objectives of agriculture is sustainability addressed to achieve food security, based on the improvement of use efficiency of farm resources, the increasing of crop yield and quality, under climate change conditions. The optimization of farm resources, as well as the control of soil degradation processes (e.g., soil erosion), can be realized through crop monitoring in the field, aiming to manage the local spatial variability (time and space) with a high resolution. In the case of high profitability crops, as the case of vineyards for high-quality wines, the capability to manage and follow spatial behavior of plants during the season represents an opportunity to improve farmer incomes and preserve the environmental health. However, any field monitoring represents an additional cost for the farmer, which slows down the objective of a diffuse sustainable agriculture. Satellite multispectral images have been widely used for production management in large areas. However, their observation is limited by the pre-defined and fixed scale with relatively coarse spatial resolution, resulting in limitations in their application. In this paper, encouraged by recent achievements in convolutional neural network (CNN), a multiscale full-connected CNN is constructed for the pan-sharpening of Sentinel-2A images by UAV images. The reconstructed data are validated by independent multispectral UAV images and in-situ spectral measurements. The reconstructed Sentinel-2A images provide a temporal evaluation of plant responses using selected vegetation indices. The proposed methodology has been tested on plant measurements taken either in-vivo and through the retrospective reconstruction of the eco-physiological vine behavior, by the evaluation of water conductivity and water use efficiency indexes from anatomical and isotopic traits recorded in vine trunk wood. In this study, the use of such a methodology able to combine the pro and cons of space-borne and UAVs data to evaluate plant responses, with high spatial and temporal resolution, has been applied in a vineyard of southern Italy by analyzing the period from 2015 to 2018. The obtained results have shown a good correspondence between the vegetation indexes obtained from reconstructed Sentinel-2A data and plant hydraulic traits obtained from tree-ring based retrospective reconstruction of vine eco-physiological behavior

Rootstock effect on tree-ring traits in grapevine under a climate change scenario

Projected changes in drought occurrence in the Mediterranean region are rising concerns about the adaptive capability of typically rainfed crops, as grapevine, to increasing aridity. Cultivation management, especially the techniques influencing the hydraulic pathway, can play a role in plant adaptation to drought for the consequent changes in wood anatomical functional traits. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of grafting on wood anatomy in tree-ring series of Vitis vinifera L. 'Piedirosso' grapevine cultivated in a volcanic area in Southern Italy. Tree-ring anatomy was analysed in vines grown on their own-roots or grafted to 420A rootstock. Results showed that grafted vines had higher occurrence of wood traits linked with safety of water transport if compared with non-grafted vines. Grafting induced the formation of tree rings with higher incidence of latewood also characterised by narrower and more frequent vessels if compared with non-grafted vines. This study suggested a different regulation of water flow in the grafted and non-grafted vines. Such findings support the analysis of wood anatomy as a tool to drive decisions linked with plant cultivation management. In this specific case, being grapevine a rainfed crop, results encourage to evaluate the opportunity to move from a traditional cultivation with own-rooted grapevines towards grafted models inducing better adaptation to increasing drought

Effect of grafting on xilem efficiency/safety modulation and photosynthetic performance in Vitis vinifera “piedirosso”: concerns in a climate change scenario

Vitis vinifera L. is the most widely cultivated and economically important fruit crop in the world (1). Italy, one of the world’s leading wine-producing countries, shows vineyards distributed all over the mainland. In this scenario, Campania region, due to its peculiar climatic conditions and fertile soils, has always been considered one of the most appreciated districts for wine production (2). Additionally, the presence of several autochthonous grape varieties is a mainstay for this region. Italian legislation does not allow the irrigation of vineyards in order to preserve wine quality in most quality assurance labels. However, the ongoing climate changes are determining constraints in viticulture due to rising temperatures, changes in precipitation frequency and occurrence of extreme events, such as heat waves. Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) yield is expected to suffer from climate change also given that fruit development and ripening occur in the hottest and driest season (3) (4). In the last years, in the sight of climate change, the attention has been rise non wine production sustainability, particularly considering the possibility to adopt cultivation techniques aimed to enhance physiological adaptation to drought (5). In some volcanic areas of the Campania Region, grapevine cultivation is traditionally performed by avoiding the use of rootstocks thanks to the soil type that is inhospitable to Phylloxera pest. In this context, the aim of the study is to assess how the use of grafting on rootstocks could influence plant adaptation to drought and grape production. This study was conducted on Vitis vinifera L. ‘Piedirosso’ grapevine which is an autochthonous cultivar of the Campania Region. Plant growth, yield, photosynthetic performance and anatomy of water stem-leaf pathway were analysed in plants grown on their own-roots or grafted onto 420A rootstock (Vitis riparia x Vitis berlandieri). The selected vineyard Vigna Jossa was located within the farm Cantine degli Astroni, in the Campi Flegrei area at 200m above sea level (Naples, Southern Italy). Grafted and non-grafted plants were compared on the basis of several morphological and eco-physiological parameters including: plant architecture, leaf and wood stem anatomical traits, photosynthetic efficiency (by determination of quantum yield of PSII electron transport, maximal photochemical efficiency and pigment content), gas exchanges, etc. The overall results showed that the expected differences in growth performance and productivity in the two types of plants, were consequent to different eco-physiological and structural properties suggesting a different capability to modulate gas-exchanges and water flow efficiency/safety against embolism under different conditions of water availability. Hence, this study suggested the occurrence of higher plasticity of plant traits involved in the regulation of water flow in the grafted system. Such findings induce to better evaluate the opportunity to move from a traditional cultivation with own-rooted grapevines towards grafted models in the sight of increasing drought. As an alternative, the maintenance of the traditional own-rooted cultivation system should be accompanied by further cultivation trials aimed to optimize training system and plant management