Abstract
Background and Aims Climate change and reduced precipitation pose significant challenges for the wine industry, particularly in vulnerable regions, where it is essential to incorporate irrigation management tools. Regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) is a step forward in that direction. Still, its adoption in Chile has been slow, partly due to inconsistent results regarding its impact on grape composition, a product of low experimental scalability, and, in general, highly variable applied water and vine stress due to the lack of actual evapotranspiration (ETa) assessment on study sites. This study aimed to understand the impact of RDI on yield, vine balance, and grape volatile and nonvolatile composition in an industrial‐scale 5‐year trial using precise ETa‐based irrigation. Methods and Results A five‐year experiment with three RDI regimes and a control was conducted in Maule Valley, Chile. Different portions of ETa from pea size to harvest were replenished as follows: 100% ETa (control), 70% ETa, 50%–100% ETa, and 35%–100% ETa (50 or 35% ETa before veraison and 100% ETa after). The experiment covered 4.54 ha, including a 1.2 ha control treatment in which a flux tower was installed to assess ETa. Midday stem water potential, yield components, and grape volatile and phenolic composition were measured. RDI reduced yield, mainly due to lower cluster weight as a result of smaller and fewer berries. Concentration on a fresh‐weight basis of total anthocyanin, tri‐hydroxylated anthocyanins, tannins, and specific flavonols, including quercetin, myricetin, and syringetin glycosides, was higher in the two most water‐restrictive RDI treatments, while total soluble solids and acidity were lower. Also, the same treatments showed increases in positive aromas, including α‐terpineol, β‐damascenone, linalool, and nerol, as well as possibly undesired aromas such as IBMP and hexenal. While some metabolites indeed increased their per‐berry content, suggesting an upregulation of metabolism, most of the observed increments were simply driven by berry size reduction. Conclusions Overall, most of the changes caused by RDI are positive in terms of grape quality, with higher color and aroma concentrations. To achieve most of the positive effects, RDI needs to reach at least 50% of the ETa, particularly from pea size to veraison . Significance of the Study By incorporating actual ETa assessment in a 5‐year industrial‐scale trial, which enabled consistent irrigation fractions across seasons and reduced the uncertainty from crop‐coefficient‐based estimates, this study helped both to improve the reliability of RDI research and to address previous inconsistencies in RDI effects on grape chemical composition.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record; open copy licensed cc-by. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 13
Claim · model-written summary
Regulated deficit irrigation reduced grapevine yield.
Verbatim
t0“Cabernet Sauvignon (Vitis Vinifera L.) Grapes”
e1“RDI reduced yield, mainly due to lower cluster weight as a result of smaller and fewer berries”
e5“A five‐year experiment with three RDI regimes and a control was conducted in Maule Valley, Chile”
Claim · model-written summary
Cluster weight was lower under regulated deficit irrigation as a result of smaller and fewer berries.
Verbatim
t0“Cabernet Sauvignon (Vitis Vinifera L.) Grapes”
e1“RDI reduced yield, mainly due to lower cluster weight as a result of smaller and fewer berries”
Claim · model-written summary
Total anthocyanin, tri-hydroxylated anthocyanins and tannins were higher in the two most water-restrictive RDI treatments.
- Taxon
- Vitis Vinifera L.t0
- Treatment
- RDIe2
- Outcome
- total anthocyanin, tri‐hydroxylated anthocyanins, tanninse2
- Direction
- highere2
- Qualifier
- on a fresh‐weight basise2
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
t0“Cabernet Sauvignon (Vitis Vinifera L.) Grapes”
e2“Concentration on a fresh‐weight basis of total anthocyanin, tri‐hydroxylated anthocyanins, tannins, and specific flavonols, including quercetin, myricetin, and syringetin glycosides, was higher in the two most water‐restrictive RDI treatments”
Claim · model-written summary
Quercetin, myricetin and syringetin glycosides were higher in the two most water-restrictive RDI treatments.
- Taxon
- Vitis Vinifera L.t0
- Treatment
- RDIe2
- Outcome
- quercetin, myricetin, and syringetin glycosidese2
- Direction
- highere2
- Qualifier
- on a fresh‐weight basise2
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
t0“Cabernet Sauvignon (Vitis Vinifera L.) Grapes”
e2“Concentration on a fresh‐weight basis of total anthocyanin, tri‐hydroxylated anthocyanins, tannins, and specific flavonols, including quercetin, myricetin, and syringetin glycosides, was higher in the two most water‐restrictive RDI treatments”
Claim · model-written summary
Total soluble solids and acidity were lower under regulated deficit irrigation.
Verbatim
t0“Cabernet Sauvignon (Vitis Vinifera L.) Grapes”
e2“Concentration on a fresh‐weight basis of total anthocyanin, tri‐hydroxylated anthocyanins, tannins, and specific flavonols, including quercetin, myricetin, and syringetin glycosides, was higher in the two most water‐restrictive RDI treatments”
e3“while total soluble solids and acidity were lower”
Claim · model-written summary
Alpha-terpineol, beta-damascenone and linalool increased under regulated deficit irrigation.
Verbatim
t0“Cabernet Sauvignon (Vitis Vinifera L.) Grapes”
e2“in the two most water‐restrictive RDI treatments”
e4“the same treatments showed increases in positive aromas, including α‐terpineol, β‐damascenone, linalool, and nerol, as well as possibly undesired aromas such as IBMP and hexenal”
Claim · model-written summary
Nerol increased under regulated deficit irrigation.
Verbatim
t0“Cabernet Sauvignon (Vitis Vinifera L.) Grapes”
e2“in the two most water‐restrictive RDI treatments”
e4“the same treatments showed increases in positive aromas, including α‐terpineol, β‐damascenone, linalool, and nerol, as well as possibly undesired aromas such as IBMP and hexenal”
Claim · model-written summary
IBMP and hexenal increased under regulated deficit irrigation as possibly undesired aromas.
Verbatim
t0“Cabernet Sauvignon (Vitis Vinifera L.) Grapes”
e2“in the two most water‐restrictive RDI treatments”
e4“the same treatments showed increases in positive aromas, including α‐terpineol, β‐damascenone, linalool, and nerol, as well as possibly undesired aromas such as IBMP and hexenal”
Claim · model-written summary
Some metabolites increased their per-berry content under regulated deficit irrigation.
Verbatim
t0“Cabernet Sauvignon (Vitis Vinifera L.) Grapes”
e6“some metabolites indeed increased their per‐berry content”
Claim · model-written summary
The per-berry increases suggest an upregulation of grape metabolism.
Verbatim
t0“Cabernet Sauvignon (Vitis Vinifera L.) Grapes”
e7“suggesting an upregulation of metabolism”
Claim · model-written summary
Most observed increments in metabolite content were driven by berry size reduction.
Verbatim
t0“Cabernet Sauvignon (Vitis Vinifera L.) Grapes”
e0“most of the observed increments were simply driven by berry size reduction”
Claim · model-written summary
Most changes caused by regulated deficit irrigation are positive for grape quality, with higher color and aroma concentrations.
Verbatim
t0“Cabernet Sauvignon (Vitis Vinifera L.) Grapes”
e0“Overall, most of the changes caused by RDI are positive in terms of grape quality, with higher color and aroma concentrations”
Claim · model-written summary
Regulated deficit irrigation needs to reach at least 50% of ETa, particularly from pea size to veraison.
Verbatim
t0“Cabernet Sauvignon (Vitis Vinifera L.) Grapes”
e0“RDI needs to reach at least 50% of the ETa, particularly from pea size to veraison”
The same questions in other papers
irrigation · yield · Vitis vinifera (wine grape)Positive and negative results
16 papers in the same direction as this paper · 24 in the opposite direction
- negative
- negative
- positive
37 papers more in this group
See all 41 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.