INVESTIGACIÓN - EFECTO DE DIFERENTES NIVELES DE AGUA APLICADA EN POSCUAJA Y EN POSPINTA SOBRE LA CALIDAD DEL VINO cv. CABERNET SAUVIGNON (Effects of different levels of water application in post-setting and post-veraison on wine quality cv. Cabernet Sauvignon)

An experiment was carried out to evaluate the effects of different levels of water application during post setting and post veraison on wine quality of cv. Cabernet Sauvignon (Vitis vinifera L.) during the 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 growing seasons. The vineyard is located in the PencahueValley, VII Region of Chile (35°22' S lat; 71°47' W long). The 7 year-old vineyard was drip irrigated and trained in a vertical shoot positional system. Irrigation treatments were the application of 40, 70 and 100% of the real evapotranspiration (ETreal) during post setting and post veraison. The results showed that the best combination for wine quality was obtained by restricting water applications to 40% ETreal during post setting and 70% ETreal during post veraison, with significant increments in the global quality and wine sensory attributes. On the contrary, the worst wine quality (higher titratable acidity and low total concentrations of phenols and anthocyanins) was obtained with a water application of 100% of the ETreal during the whole growing period