In September 2013 has been done in Italy the Grapevine Haifa Seminar entitled “From a Grated Vine to a Glass of Wine”. We have defined this title because with the special Haifa fertilizer it is possible to fertilize from the Grafted Vine to the Vine for getting specific oenological goals.
The aim was to improve and share knowledge on common fertilization of vineyards, confronted with the vision of viticulture in different countries, with different markets and different climatic zones, for the definition of a technical approach unique for a sustainable fertilization of the vineyard in accordance of individual Terroirs and oenological goals.
The Seminar was organized as a dynamic tour in the major wine areas of northeast of Italy, in the way to match aula sessions and field visit, having the opportunity to have lessons from qualified and competent researchers and market leader to discuss passionately about the best fertilization of the vine.

Why should innovative techniques to manage vine water and nutrient supply be recommended? This question only appears to be obvious. In fact, despite the fact that the vine has rather developed “saving” mechanisms when it comes to water and nutrients, it is impossible to not consider other factors such as the marketplace. On top of this is the reality that not all of the world’s vineyards are grown in ideal ecopedological locations (Australia is the first example, but is not the only one); even several national zones have similar limitations. Beyond differentiating between ideal and real there are also climate changes, that are causing once ideal zones to become no longer perfect, in fact they must now resort to irrigation and nutrition supplementation in order to maintain qualitative and quantitative levels of production. Finally there are market requirements, such as particular wine sensory characteristics; in particular today white and sparkling wines must be fresh, with a moderate aroma profile and not too high alcohol content… these are characters with are very difficult to obtain when relying solely on natural environmental water supply (rain, which is continually more sporadic) and mineral nutrition from common immediate effect granular fertilizers.
The statement that a good wine “… could be produced only from grapes starving for minerals and water…” is nowadays recognised as overtaken in new scenarios by:

  • deep scientific and technological knowledge – the adoption of microirrigation or fertigation allowed the winegrowers to easily control the yields and to match enological goals, that in past times were impossible to obtain with traditional grape growing techniques (check of sugar and acid content in musts, guarantee of a good content of Free Amino Nitrogen (FAN), possibility to swift aromatic profiles in wines).
  • climate changing – the opportunity to target the mineral and the water nutrition of the grape with fertigation offered the possibility to pursue good yields also in conditions of prolonged periods of water stress as well as with anomalous temperature and rain trends. Moreover fertigation and CRF allowed new production areas to be cultivated. The global warming does not change the world geography of vineyards, but the viticultural and enological practices must be adapted.
  • new customer needs – Nowadays customers require wines with lower alcohol level, higher freshness and richer in aroma compounds.

Seems logical that agronomists must take into account such scenarios of progressive change by renewing cultivation techniques. A correct, innovative an targeted mineral and water nutrition cold thus crucially help the winegrowers.
For further information, or to request Haifa’s product catalogue, please contact Mr. Mauro Schippa, phone +39 051 338 011, email mauro.schippa@haifa-group.com