TY - JOUR T1 - Yield, Must Composition, and Wine Quality Responses to Preveraison Water Deficits in Sparkling Base Wines of Chardonnay JF - American Journal of Enology and Viticulture JO - Am. J. Enol. Vitic. DO - 10.5344/ajev.2015.15039 SP - ajev.2015.15039 AU - Joaquim Bellvert AU - Jordi Marsal AU - Merce Mata AU - Joan Girona Y1 - 2015/11/03 UR - http://www.ajevonline.org/content/early/2015/10/29/ajev.2015.15039.abstract N2 - A field experiment was carried out over three consecutive seasons on Vitis vinifera cv. Chardonnay destined for sparkling base wine ‘Cava’. Four different irrigation treatments were applied: (i) Control (C), fully irrigated, in which irrigation was scheduled according to a water balance approach; (ii) RDIm, irrigated during stage II (from berry set to the onset of veraison) when Ψstem was less than −1.0 MPa, and as C during other phenological stages; (iii) RDIs, irrigated during stage II when Ψstem was less than −1.2 MPa, and as C during other phenological stages; and (iv) DI, irrigated when Ψstem was more negative than −1.2 MPa from flowering to harvest. Differences were observed in yield and base wine composition between years. Over the three years, reducing the quantity of water applied by 20% in the RDIm in comparison with C, was associated with an average reduction in grape yield of 19%. The reductions in grape yield observed in RDIs and DI were even greater, reaching 35 and 48%, respectively. Water stress negatively affected aroma quality, titratable acidity and malic acid, as well as increased polyphenol concentration, which is unfavorable for oxidation issues. Therefore, C was presented as the best irrigation strategy to maximize the desirable quality variables for sparkling base wines. However, in terms of facilitating crop management through the control of excessive vegetative growth, it could be interesting to use the RDIm strategy at the cost of slightly reducing some sensory attributes such as floral and tree fruit aromas and wine structure. The adoption of RDIs or DI strategies are not recommended due to their negative effect on acidity and desirable aromas in sparkling base wines. ER -