The IMViTo Innovations Project to improve the competitiveness and sustainability of the Tuscan wine industry was conceived in 2010 and is divided into three areas:
1. The sustainability of cultivation and processing systems;
2. The evaluation of the potential of native vineyards registered in the regional list;
3. The traceability within the wine sector.
Launched by a public announcement of the Tuscany Region, the project involves the major research institutions in Tuscany which work in the wine sector: the Research Unit for Viticulture of the CRA, the University of Fiorente through the Department of Management of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Systems and the Department of Agricultural Production and Environment Science, as well as the University of Pisa with its Department of Agricultural, Food and Agro-environmental Science, and finally the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa.
The sponsors are: Vino Chianti Classico Consortium, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano Consortium, provincial administrations and farms.
Here are more details of the three areas of the IMViTo project
1. Sustainability of the cultivation and processing systems
Some research at different levels of the chain has started, in order to find how to preserve the environment and reduce the inputs to the system from the point of view of energy and phytoiatric. The ideal pedoclimatic environments for planting and the effects on plants related to the vegeto-production processes have been studied.
Aspects of the relationship between plant, environment and sustainability were developed at the Barone Ricasoli company and at Fonterutoli Castle. Moreover, in the Bolgheri district, innovative methods of study of the carbon balance and the efficiency of plants' photosynthesis have been searched, through measures of gas exchange which involve the whole plant.
-Relationship between plants and the environment and its sustainability (soil, vineyard management techniques, application of new integrated technologies),
-Management methods in the wine sector (biodynamic, organic, useful microorganisms),
-Sustainable transformation with consequent energy and environmental balance within different systems of viticulture management,
-Economic and marketing balance of the sustainable viticulture products.
2. The potential of native vineyards
The partners have direct experience that has already allowed to recover vine types such as Pugnitello and Foglia Tonda. The varieties are topic of investigations to study their responses to different growing environments and to winemaking techniques, as well as investigations to establish referential analytical and sensory profiles.
A careful market survey is going on to know the consumers' appreciation of wines from native varieties.
3. Traceability of productions
Both consumers and winegrowers feel particularly involved in this issue.
Many are the ways taken into consideration: wine varietal DNA research and those related to the phenolic and aromatic profiles. Last but not least, space also for the development of a documental traceability connected to precision viticulture in order to allow producers and consumers to identify each step in the history of wine, from the vine to the bottle.
© RIPRODUZIONE RISERVATA
03/04/2013
