Phenolics within the grape play an important role in a wine’s sensorial properties, such as color, astringency, mouthfeel, and bitterness. For example, increasing the size …
Managing phenolics in the vineyard
Tag: Sap flow sensor
It’s in your head: Wine flavors come from your brain
Where does the taste of wine come from? While most of us would refer to the grapes, winemaking techniques or vintages, few approach wine tasting …
Plant cavitation controversy (chapter 5): When do vineyards really cavitate?
In 2016, Charrier and his colleagues reported results to quantify vulnerability to cavitation as water potential gets more negative. Using a synchrotron, authors let the …
The cavitation controversy (chapter 4): Vineyards rarely cavitate!
There is an active controversy surrounding the frequency of cavitation with vines. In the last three blog posts, we talked about recent studies to understand …
The cavitation controversy (chapter 3): Are we missing something?
If we believe Jacobsen and Pratt’s findings on plant cavitation (see the previous blog post), then logically vineyards would operate with 100% of vessels full …
The cavitation controversy (chapter 2): Are vineyards cavitating all the time?
In the previous blog post, we talked about past research efforts to understand plant cavitations. More recently, Jacobsen and Pratt obtained very surprising results on …
The cavitation controversy (chapter 1): What is it about?
Much of California has now come out of extreme drought. However, even if we are in a low water deficit year, there are always sites …
Creating vine water status mapping
Vineyards often have to cope with a great deal of variability. Within the same vineyard, vine physiology and fruit composition can vary wildly from one …
How do climate and irrigation affect wine tannin?
In a previous post, we talked about what scientists have learned recently about tannin structure and activity. Tannin is one of the key determinants of wine …
Managing berry phenolics in a hot climate: leaf removal and water deficit
How can we combine leaf removal and irrigation techniques to optimize flavonoid concentration in grape berries? Focusing on the hot, arid winegrowing region of San …