Aiming to quantify the effects of the intensity and duration of grapevine water stress, physiological and
agronomical data from an irrigation experiment conducted during 1999 at Alentejo, south of Portugal, with the
red variety Aragonez (syn. Tempranillo) were correlated with an water stress index (Sψ). This index was
calculated by the integral of predawn leaf water potential below –0.2 MPa between bloom and harvest.
Significant relationships were found between the Sψ, yield components and berry composition. The multiple
regression analysis shows that the Sψ in the period bloom-veraison has a higher contribution to explain the
variation in berry weight, anthocyanins and phenolics concentration than the Sψ in the period veraison-harvest.
The knowledge of those relationships, together with the relationship between available soil water content and
predawn leaf water potential, may allow the adequate management of soil water availability to optimise the
yield/quality ratio for each ecological situationinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio