PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Jose C. Herrera AU - Simone D. Castellarin TI - Preveraison Water Deficit Accelerates Berry Color Change in Merlot Grapevines AID - 10.5344/ajev.2016.15083 DP - 2016 Mar 01 TA - American Journal of Enology and Viticulture PG - ajev.2016.15083 4099 - http://www.ajevonline.org/content/early/2016/02/25/ajev.2016.15083.short 4100 - http://www.ajevonline.org/content/early/2016/02/25/ajev.2016.15083.full AB - In red varieties, color change of the berry from green to red is one of the first events associated to ripening and is often used as an indicator of veraison by viticulturists. Water deficit can accelerate the ripening process and increase the accumulation of pigments in the berry skin. The impact of water deficit on the timing and progression of berry color change in the vineyard was little investigated. Here we present the results of three years of observations (2011–2013) on the progression of color change in Merlot vines subjected to water deficit (WD) or irrigation (C) regimes. Water deficit did not affect the date when berries started changing color in 2011 and 2012, but pigmentation begun three days earlier in WD than in C vines in 2013. Water deficit accelerated the pigmentation process in all the years and WD berries completed color change five days before C on average.