Climate change and viticulture: we need a change

Abstract
The lengthening of the growing season, the compression of the annual cycle and the greater frequency and severity of extreme weather events are evident characteristics of the global warming. While mitigation of the factors causing global warming is necessary in the medium to long term, winemakers need “off-the-shelf” adaptation practices to counteract the negative effects related to climate change. This must be done in a sustainable way, which means that profitable yield, desired grape quality, low production costs and environmentally friendly solutions must be effectively combined.
The main tools and practices presented will concern: i) the role of the often neglected and so-called "minor" cultivars; ii) testing of recently released drought-tolerant rootstocks; iii) selection of new herbaceous species for more sustainable soil management and experimentation with "mulching-winding" and "rolling" techniques; iv) physiological and ICT-based approaches to detect the initial symptoms of water stress and testing of multi-purpose localized irrigation systems; v) techniques aimed at de-synchronizing sugars and phenolic maturity (e.g. late apical defoliation of the canopy); vi) possibility of applying a double harvest method even in a temperate climate; vii) a delayed winter pruning technique to avoid or minimize damage due to late frost.

The speaker
Prof. Stefano Poni has been, since 1998, full professor of viticulture at the Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. Former Director of the Department of Sustainable Plant Production Sciences, he is currently Director of the VENIT International Master. He is the author or co-author of over 350 scientific works, of which 174 are published in journals with an Impact Factor. H-index of 43 on Scopus database for a total of 5409 citations. Invited speaker at 52 international conferences, winner of the Perdisa Award in 1994, of the “Enotecnici” Award in 2004, of the Rudolph Hermanns Foundation Award in 2011. Winner of the Award for the best scientific work published in 2013 in the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture. Associate Editor for American Journal of Enology and Viticulture since 1 January 2006 and Associate Editor for Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research since 1 July 2014. Chief Editor for Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research since 1 September 2023. Stefano Poni is included for the "career" and "year 2020" categories in the ranking drawn up by Stanford University and which groups together the 2% of the Top Scientists in the world.

Important information: the seminar will be held in Italian to allow students from the Viticulture and Oenology bachelor to attend the seminar.