Viticultural strategy to reduce alcohol levels in wine

Abstract: Full-bodied and deeply colored red wines are presently the most appreciated and prized. Well-ripe grapes normally have a high glucidic content that gives highly alcoholic wines. Moreover, global temperature is increasing leading to advance in berry maturation and increase of sugar accumulation; this fact enhances even more the average wine alcohol content. Due to the consumer concern about the effects of high alcohol wine drinking, several producers have started to offer low alcohol wines. This type of wines can be produced by reducing alcohol in winery or by reducing sugar accumulation in berries. Within the last approach, different strategies have been suggested: selecting specific varieties or clones, increasing crop load, shading bunches, choosing proper irrigation techniques, modulating source-sink relationships by removing leaves or topping shoots, applying anti-transpirant to leaves or plant growth regulators to grapes. The results obtained from many studies are not univocal and are likely affected by the interaction between genotype and environment and by the extent to which each technique is applied.