The wine-growing Abruzzo does not stop, despite the well-known difficulties due to the downy mildew disaster of 2023, which decimated the harvests and made the region enter the list of those in a state of calamity due to plant diseases. The Consortium for the protection of Abruzzo wines presented a project viticultural characterization named Ado – Areas of the four DOs of Abruzzo for a modern characterization. Will use the most modern technologies in the vineyard, to get to the mapping of an entire region. The project is promoted in collaboration with Ager and financed by the 2014-2020 Psr of the Agriculture Department of Abruzzo region.
How the platform works
Everything depends on the Enogis platform, which cross-references the weather data of the 47 climate stations throughout the entire Abruzzo region with the viticultural index, the soil map and climate series. The information thus obtained will allow the Consortium and each individual company to evaluate the vocation of each individual plot of vineyard. Based on these, you can decide on the most appropriate strategy variety planted, onorientation It is on water needs. With the integration of the new support of the viticultural phytopathological bulletin issued by the Region, every winemaker will have a valid short and long term evaluation tool in hand. In this project, all the supply chains linked to integrated production in the vineyard are involved at the highest level, therefore producers, field technicians and institutions.
Strategic information with one click
«Winemakers will have access to a just clicks all the information to make choices not only in the phytosanitary field but also in the phase of new plants or renewal of the same”, he explains Alessandro Nicodemipresident of the consortium, who adds: «On the one hand, we are aiming for a environmental sustainabilitythrough the protection of the operator throughout the entire reference area, to minimize the use of pesticides only when necessary, on the other to a economic sustainabilitywith the possibility of planting vineyard and variety in the right place.”
The study on resistant vines
The Ado project scheme can also be used for the selection of new types of vineyard, in a region whose main representative is Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. The Consortium, supported by the Ridolfi-Zimarino agricultural technical institute of Scerni, has planted 18 resistant varieties in 2024, comparing them with the vines native, in order to verify the possibility of introducing them into the regional register and using them in the production of Igt wines. The objective is, in five years, to allow companies to expand their viticultural choices, particularly in those areas subject to plant diseases. «In a context of climate change they are fundamental experiments, also in light of what happened last year with the outbreaks of downy mildew, of which we are still waiting for compensation».
