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Although vertical shoot positioned (VSP) training systems, either cane- or spur-pruned, are adopted in the great majority of the vineyards worldwide, the lianas nature of the grapevine and the presence of long and flexible canes confer high plasticity and render structural and pruning changes quite easy. The focus of this review is if, in light of the most consistent features triggered by global warming (e.g., longer growing season, earlier phenology, faster ripening, higher incidence of overheating stress and sunburn, higher frequency of extreme weather events), the type and management of training systems should also be reconsidered. We surveyed the main methods to assess training system efficiency and the current attempts and outlook toward exploiting the training system as an adaptation tool to climate change. For the latter, we considered 12 main trellis types and scored them based on climate-related features and general traits such as vigor, yield control, susceptibility to fungal diseases, and suitability according to wine types (still or sparkling). The resulting balance of positive and negative recommendations leads to a re-evaluation of either old, nonmechanizable trellis types (e.g., Raggi-Bellussi and pergola types), divided canopy systems (e.g., GDC and Scott Henry) or, among the single canopy types, of the single high wire (SHW) trellis. However, historical systems traditionally used by best regions and producers (e.g., goblet and VSP either cane- or spur-pruned) overall show less adherence to the chosen evaluation criteria. To direct future evolution of training systems, regardless of the broadly shared need for suitability to partial or full mechanization, the scenario looks different depending on cool and temperate (warm) areas. The former experiences an outburst of interest as warming is broadening growing areas and affordable genotypes. Under such circumstances, training systems should help accelerate or favor the ripening process through vigor con

This work aims at quantifying dynamics and impact of increasing and decreasing cover crop to vine competition. A two-year study was conducted on well-watered potted 'Barbera'/'SO4' grapevines with the root system split into two 40 L pots. In the spring of 2020, four grassed (G) treatments were established, using Festuca arundinacea (FA) and Festuca ovina (FO) sown in either one or two pots (GG-FA, GT-FA, GG-FO, and GT-FO, respectively), and compared with a tilled control (TT). These treatments were maintained for the following season, with all grass covers terminated on June 30 using herbicide. In 2021, the whole-canopy gas exchange of three canopies per treatment was continuously monitored from Day of Year (DOY) 155-175 and DOY 179-249. Grass sowing in spring 2020 had a significant impact on final pruning weight, decreasing by 70 % in GG-FA compared to TT. The treatments imposed in 2020 severely limited canopy development in spring 2021, with the net carbon exchange rate (NCER) decreasing between 27 % (GT-FO) and 73 % (GG-FA) vs. TT, and transpiration (T) per vine registering a decrease between 16 % (GT-FO) and 43 % (GG-FA). Moreover, final yield recorded in 2021 was very severely limited in GG-FA (0.4 kg/vine) and, albeit to a lesser extent, in GG-FO. Terminating all grass covers on June 30, 2021 triggered a prompt vine recovery, with NCER and T rates catching up to TT levels in 54 days and canopy WUE showing a rapid resumption. This is the first study providing assessment of cover crop to vine competition encompassing seasonal gas exchange effects at the whole canopy level. It also shows that canopy water use efficiency decreases with increasing competition and vice versa.

Grapevine training systems should be thoroughly examined to contribute to vineyards more resilient to climate change. This study was conducted on 18 three-year-old fruiting Sangiovese vines grown in pots outdoors with canopies trained to a vertical shoot positioned (VSP) spur-pruned cordon, a single high wire (SHW), and a Pergola (P) training system. Whole-canopy net CO2 exchange rate (NCER) and transpiration (T) were monitored by an enclosure system on a 24/7 basis from DOY 179–249. All vines were kept well-watered (WW) from DOY 179 to DOY 199, and the water supply was first reduced to 50% (DOY200–204) and then to 35% (DOY 205–214) before final rewatering (DOY 215–217). Vegetative growth, yield components, and grape composition were also assessed. Seasonal gas exchange on a per vine basis reflected vine size given as total leaf area (LA) varying from 2.5 to 3.1 m2; however, when diurnal trends of NCER/LA and T/LA within the WW and rewatering periods were considered, the good correlations found with the modeled total canopy light interception (TCLI) in SHW and P, were not confirmed in VSP. In all canopy geometries, the best predictor of NCER/LA was the total direct light intensity, whereas T/LA was linearly and closely correlated with air VPD. In terms of NCER/LA during the WW period, SHW had 24% higher rates than VSP and P. Under progressive water stress, SHW again exhibited higher drought resilience, while NCER and T were severely reduced in VSP and P. Severe stress also caused lower light saturation points and quantum yield in VSP and P. Under similar yield levels, P reached the best fruit maturity. In terms of photosynthetic efficiency and adaptive response to increasing water stress, the SHW performed best. Results extrapolated at the field level indicate the P system as the most rewarding.

Maintaining optimal grape acidity at harvest is one of the most complicated challenges under climate change pressures, especially in early ripening cultivars. Warming trends are compressing vine phenology and fostering berry malic acid respiration. In this work, over four years, we evaluated yield components and fruit ripening in two local varieties in the Colli Piacentini, Ortrugo (ORT) and Barbesino (BRB). Our goal was to evaluate their ability to maintain satisfying acidity at harvest and understand the limits and features of the genetic control over organic acid degradation during ripening. The two varieties exhibited comparable yield and grape total soluble solids (TSS) accumulation dynamics, but BRB showed consistently higher acidity during the entire ripening process in any of the four years. BRB's higher acidity was linked to higher malic acid concentrations. ORT had earlier onset of malic acid degradation than BRB and lower maximum malic acid degradation rates. Malic acid degradation rates were lower in ORT also later in the season, until harvest. However, correlations built between malic acid degradation rates and instantaneous malic acid concentration revealed that BRB had a consistently lower malic acid loss for values of malate < 10 g/L. Our work demonstrates that there is a genetic control over the malic acid degradation rates exhibited at varying malic acid concentrations and higher acidity at harvest can be found in varieties exhibiting low malic acid degradation rates when malic acid is < 10 g/L. Post-veraison berry growth rates could interact with genotype effects. The analysis of the correlation can be used at different scales to identify cultivars retaining higher acidity at harvest.

Summer pruning encompasses a series of operations typically performed on the grapevine during the growing season. This review provides an update on the research conducted over the last 20 years on the modalities and strategies of main summer pruning operations, which include shoot positioning and thinning, shoot trimming, leaf removal, and cluster thinning, with a special focus on their adaptation to climate change occurring in Mediterranean areas. Three main novelties emerged from the survey. First, due to a common need to shelter clusters against overheating and sunburn-related damages, shoot thinning and leaf removal are practices that are now being applied in a much more cautious and conservative manner. Second, the meaning of summer pruning is evolving because operations are being used as precious tools to direct ripening toward a desired direction rather than being received passively. Third, some operations, such as leaf removal, have disclosed very high plasticity, which means that, depending on the timing and modalities of the intervention, yield can be either increased or decreased and ripening anticipated or postponed. In an era where economic and environmental sustainability have to find a good compromise, cluster thinning is increasingly being depicted as an extraordinary operation that should be left to occasional occurrences of overcropping. Moreover, summer pruning is a tool through which growers can, to an extent, exploit the potentialities offered by climate change. For instance, the crop-forcing technique, under the different configurations of single and double cropping within the same season, has been trialed promisingly in several regions and cultivars. The principle of forcing is to unlock the dormant bud during the first year by removing at least the young organs present on the shoot within a time window between the end of the flowering and pea-size stages. In particular, when it is applied in a double-cropping mode, the preliminary results r

In a global warming context, the advancement and compression of maturity in early ripening grape varieties suited to sparkling wine making can easily expedite harvest within the first two weeks of August (in northern Italy). Such earliness, albeit safeguarding acid retention, involves potential suboptimal grape composition and triggers logistical issues related to grape harvest and delivery. Hence, this three-year study beginning in 2020 was conducted on cane-pruned Chardonnay vines, grown in the Franciacorta district of Lombardy, to assess if a single-step delayed winter pruning was able to postpone vine phenology and ripening, without harming yield potential. Control (C) vines pruned midwinter were compared with those subjected to late winter pruning (LWP), performed when the apical shoots growing on the unpruned canes had reached the 2-3 unfolded leaf stage (T1) as well as 7-8 days later (T2). In 2022, a fourth treatment was added, consisting of a two-step procedure with finishing performed at T1 (LWP-two canes). Vegetative growth, yield components, ripening dynamics, and maturity at harvest were followed in each year of this study. Budburst delay induced by LWP treatments across seasons varied between 4 and 9 days, whereas harvest was postponed by 5-14 days. The extent of delay was especially pronounced in 2020, when the removed leaf area (LA) was also found to be the highest. The higher the removed LA, the higher the yield constrain was in the concomitant year. In 2020 and 2021, despite the harvest delay, LWP vines were able to assure full matching with desirable features in must composition, set at total soluble solids (TSS) of about 18 & DEG;Brix and a titratable acidity (TA) of at least 8 g/L. In the very hot and dry phase of 2022, none of the treatments facilitated the required ripening status, while data showed that an even earlier ripening would not have allowed the harvest to reach the minimum TSS level. Notably, even in 2021 and 2022, when the remov

One of the major challenges that global warming poses to viticulture is the maintenance of adequate acidity at maturity in white grapes for sparkling winemaking.)is issue arises from three main occurrences: (i) with higher temperatures, degradation of malic acid is significantly enhanced; (ii) with a general advancement in grapevine phenology, grape maturity may occur under suboptimal climatic conditions; and (iii) harvesting grapes at "traditional" dates results in overripe fruits for sparkling destinations. In this biennial work, we compared the fruit and must composition of a local, widely grown white grape variety in the Colli Piacentini area (cv. Ortrugo, ORT) with those of a minor autochthonous variety, namely, Barbesino (BRB). Furthermore, we compared the composition, aromatic, and sensory profiles of wines obtained from ORTand BRB grapes picked on the same date and, in addition, of a second Barbesino wine from late harvest (BRB-LH). ORT and BRB had a similar sugar accumulation dynamic, whereas BRB exhibited a delayed loss of titratable acidity. In more details, BRB had lower malic acid degradation rates when malate concentration was <9 g/L. As a result, with comparable yield and total soluble solid content (TSS) (similar to 20 degrees Brix), BRB had a higher berry titratable acidity and malic acid concentration at harvest than ORT. BRB wines showed the highest titratable acidity (TA), while ORT had the lowest TA and a higher pH, and as expected, BRB-LH had the highest pH and a lower TA than BRB although still higher than those of ORTwine.)e aroma profiles of wines were mainly characterized by fermentative aromas, including esters, fatty acids, higher alcohols, and C-6 compounds, and BRB-LH wines showed the highest concentration of higher alcohols, while the fermentative esters were higher in ORTwines. Panelists considered BRB significantly fresher and with bigger aroma intensity than ORT, confirming that the higher acidity detected in BRB musts is well pr

Tra gli effetti più consistenti che il riscaldamento globale sta esercitando sulla viticoltura mondiale si annoverano l’estensione del periodo di crescita vegetativa nonché l’anticipo e la compressione delle fasi fenologiche. In Franciacorta la data media di vendemmia dello Chardonnay ha subito un anticipo di oltre 20 giorni tra il periodo 1981-1990 e il più recente decennio 2011-2020. Il posticipo della potatura quando i germogli distali di viti ancora non potate presentavano 2-3 foglie distese, ha comportato un significativo ritardo delle fasi fenologiche rispetto alla potatura tradizionale.

The effect of a spring frost that occurred in 2021 in northern Italy was studied in a cv. Barbera vineyard and data were compared to those derived from the previous season (2020), when no frost damage occurred. Due to rising temperatures, the advancement of budburst widens the period that exposes developing shoots to spring frost injuries. In vineyards, damage can vary considerably according to frost severity and duration, as well as the stage of shoot development. Thus, a careful assessment of the frost consequences should be carried out in order to make the best decisions either to manage the eventual residual crop or to ensure next season’s full cropping

el 2021, in seguito alla gelata tardiva occorsa tra il 7 e il 9 aprile, è stato intrapreso uno studio per valutarne le conseguenze in un vigneto di Barbera allevato a Guyot: i dati hanno mostrato uno squilibrio dei solidi solubili nei mosti che può essere evitato rimuovendo i germogli sterili in fase di infi orescenze visibili

Even though mechanization has dramatically decreased labor requirements, vineyard management costs are still affected by selective operations such as winter pruning. Robotic solutions are becoming more common in agriculture, however, few studies have focused on grapevines. This work aims at fine-tuning and testing two different deep neural networks for: (i) detecting pruning regions (PRs), and (ii) performing organ segmentation of spur-pruned dormant grapevines. The Faster R-CNN network was fine-tuned using 1215 RGB images collected in different vineyards and annotated through bounding boxes. The network was tested on 232 RGB images, PRs were categorized by wood type (W), orientation (Or) and visibility (V), and performance metrics were calculated. PR detection was dramatically affected by visibility. Highest detection was associated with visible intermediate complex spurs in Merlot (0.97), while most represented coplanar simple spurs allowed a 74% detection rate. The Mask R-CNN network was trained for grapevine organs (GOs) segmentation by using 119 RGB images annotated by distinguishing 5 classes (cordon, arm, spur, cane and node). The network was tested on 60 RGB images of light pruned (LP), shoot-thinned (ST) and unthinned control (C) grapevines. Nodes were the best segmented GOs (0.88) and general recall was higher for ST (0.85) compared to C (0.80) confirming the role of canopy management in improving performances of hi-tech solutions based on artificial intelligence. The two fine-tuned and tested networks are part of a larger control framework that is under development for autonomous winter pruning of grapevines.

Tra gli interventi di adattamento di breve termine per contrastare l’effetto degli stress estivi l’uso del caolino trova particolare interesse per semplicità, costi contenuti e flessibilità di intervento. La sua efficacia tuttavia è legata alla qualità dei preparati utilizzati e alle modalità di applicazione