9,4 Mb - formato pdf - Enoteca Regionale
9,4 Mb - formato pdf - Enoteca Regionale
9,4 Mb - formato pdf - Enoteca Regionale
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PRODUCT DESCRIPTION<br />
A fresh fruit product obtained from the cultivation of the following varieties of dessert<br />
grapes (Vitis vinifera sp. sativa): Regina bianca or Pergolone and Cardinal.<br />
Grapes are an infructescence derived from an effuse inflorescence that develops into a<br />
compound bunch or panicle, generally just called a “bunch”. It comprises: a rasp that is<br />
made up of a main axis; shaft with many side axes; grapes attached to the abovementioned<br />
ramifications by short peduncles that end in a visible dilatation. The grapes are<br />
the edible part of the fruits and make up 93-96% of the weight of the entire bunch. These<br />
berries made up of a pruinose epicarp (skin), which is membranous, variably elastic and<br />
resilient; a thick mesocarp made up of numerous layers of juicy, plump cells; a fragile,<br />
imperceptible endocarp that envelops the two housings that may contain pips. The mesocarp<br />
and the endocarp make up the pulp that accounts for 89-95% of the entire grape.<br />
Ripe grapes contain: flavonic pigments (white grapes) or anthocyanins (black grapes);<br />
sugars made up almost solely of practically equal amounts of glucose and fructose; acids<br />
including mainly malic, tartaric and citric; aromatic substances.<br />
POMOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE CULTIVARS<br />
Pergolone. Panicle: large, long, pyramidal or cylindrical with adequately sparse, alates<br />
with one or two wings, average weight 600-700g. Grape: large, elliptical, pruinose skin,<br />
average thickness, golden yellow colour, especially when ripe, crispy pulp, sweet, neutral<br />
flavour, 2 pips per grape, average weight 9-15g, sugar content 14-17.5%. Ripe in late<br />
August-early September. Excellent flavour, travels well and resistant on the vine, withstands<br />
tineids and powdery mildew.<br />
Cardinal. Panicle: quite large, tapering cylindrical, sparse, alate, average weight 500-<br />
600g. Grape: medium-large, rounded or sub rounded, medium thick pruinose skin, irregular<br />
violet colour, pleasant sweet, crispy flesh of a neutral flavour, 2 pips per grape, average<br />
weight 9-12g, sugar content 15-16%, total water 5.6%, pH 3.4. Ripe in late July-early<br />
August when in the open, and late June-early July when covered.<br />
PROCESSING AND CONSERVATION METHODS<br />
Vine installation. The first operations include choice of the plants, for the success of<br />
the vineyard will depend extensively on plants being healthy and agriculturally sound.<br />
Consequently, whether dealing with grafted rooted vine cuttings or root stock, the material<br />
purchased must be certified. The terrain must be prepared with a series of farming<br />
operations (ploughing, in-depth fertilization, digging over of the soil) to improve the physical,<br />
chemical and microbiological characteristics of the land and to create the best possible<br />
conditions for vine root development and activity. The terrain is squared off in winter<br />
and the posts and wire for sustaining the vine are set in place. Also in winter the<br />
rooted vine cuttings or, more rarely, the root stock, are set in place. The most recommended<br />
root stock are: Kober 5 BB, 140 Ru, 157.11 C.<br />
Cultivation: lasts 2-3 years, depending on the technique preferred. Dessert grapes are<br />
cultivated in arbour-trained vineyards. This layout became popular after WWI and spread<br />
not only through Abruzzo, where it is called “a capanna”, but also in Latium, Apulia and<br />
Sicily. In the first year of cultivation the rooted vine cutting’s best shoot is gradually trained<br />
to just over half way up the supporting post, then it is trimmed and the early shoots, if<br />
healthy, are used directly for training; otherwise the following year’s shoots are used as<br />
they sprout, when the arbour is completed, training the shoots out over the pergola wires.<br />
Nitrogen is the best fertilizer for encouraging fast rooted vine cutting growth and in this<br />
phase is extremely important. No other fertilization will be required as the dose provided<br />
at the time of installation is sufficient. Special attention must be given to phytosanitary<br />
protection against the vegetative apparatus’ worst enemies: downy mildew and pow-<br />
dery mildew. Terrain must be managed in such a way as to include a range of procedures<br />
to free the soil of weeds that will compete with the young vines.<br />
Production phase: all cultivation technique operations required will be performed to<br />
keep the vines in the best state of vegetative and production equilibrium.<br />
Pruning: this operation involves eliminating shoots that have borne fruit and replacing<br />
them with others from the spur, specifically set aside the previous year to ensure renewal.<br />
For the Cardinal cultivar the number varies from 4 to 7-8, depending on the strength<br />
of the vines. For Pergolone 4-5 shoots are left. This type of pruning is done in winter (dry<br />
pruning). During the vegetative period, operations are required both on the greenery and<br />
on the vegetation of the panicle. The grapes that seem too weak to evolve will be removed<br />
from the bunch.<br />
Fertilization: the vines are dressed differently, depending on whether it is producing<br />
Cardinal or Pergolone. Cardinal, in point of fact, is generally more demanding in its fertilizer<br />
needs and is also known to be very sensitive to nitrogen-based fertilization. If the<br />
fertilizer is applied correctly the grape will produce crispy pulp, but an excess will burst<br />
the skins. Pergolone is less demanding and overdressing can actually compromise product<br />
quality.<br />
Soil management: in almost all instance this requires a varying number of operations<br />
that include winter spadework, and four or more surface millings during spring-summer.<br />
Phytosanitary protection: using integrated batch criteria that will cut interventions to<br />
a minimum and use specific, low-environmental impact products. Special protection is<br />
required against tineids and powdery mildew, which are the key enemies in the cultivation<br />
area. Other, less aggressive, pests are: downy mildew, botrytis, thunderfly, etc.<br />
Irrigation: indispensable, especially for growing the Cardinal grape, whereas for Pergolone<br />
it is less important except to note that in some conditions it will cause damage.<br />
Harvest: dessert grapes are picked only by hand, cutting the peduncle near where it enters<br />
the shoot. This is a very delicate operation that requires attention and experience in<br />
selecting the best bunches to be cut and whose poor handling can compromise the integrity<br />
of the bunch by removing the bloom (very negative, above all for Cardinal) or the<br />
peduncle, and causing lesions. The number of harvests from the same vineyard varies<br />
from 1-3, depending on the ripening stages of the grapes. Cut bunches are placed delicately,<br />
with the shaft exposed, in the various types of packaging available: crates or punnets.<br />
Crates may be 30x40cm (weighing about 7kg), 30x50cm (about 9kg), 40x60cm (about<br />
11kg), and may be in wood, cardboard or recyclable plastic. The punnets may have a handle<br />
(weighing about 1kg) or a lid (weighing about 750g), in polypropylene or cardboard.<br />
In addition to punnets, trays of varying sizes are also used, whose measurements are<br />
usually submultiples of the pallets on which they are loaded after packaging. The product<br />
is sent on to wholesalers or, more frequently, to cooperative structures.<br />
Early harvest: apart from growing out in the open, Cardinal grapes can be cultivated using<br />
a semi-forced system to achieve an earlier harvest. This technique basically means<br />
covering the vines before vegetation begins, usually late February up to mid-March. For<br />
this purpose various sorts of PE plastic sheeting are normally used; occasionally PVC or<br />
EVA are chosen. Traditionally the supporting structures for the vines are unheated greenhouses<br />
made from wooden frames (regular pavilion greenhouses) or more functional metal<br />
frames (semicircular pavilion greenhouses), in any case they are large capacity (3.3-<br />
3.5 cubic metres per square metre of surface area). The technique of covering the vines<br />
brings forward the date of budding and flowering so the fruit can be picked a month or<br />
so earlier than the grapes out in the field. A very delicate greenhouse operation is the<br />
maximum temperature aspect, as it must never exceed 35°C when the vine is covered<br />
and 30°C during the very delicate flowering-grape development phase.<br />
On the whole, the cultivation technique operations are those applied for field cultivation.<br />
NATURAL OR TRANSFORMED VEGETABLE PRODUCTS 229