Over 33,000 hectares of vineyards with Montepulciano leading (52%): the Abruzzi figures

More than 155,000 plots for a total of 33,964 hectares of vineyard with 118 varieties: of these, vineyard Montepulciano represents over 52%, followed by Tuscan Trebbiano with about 14%, and then, Trebbiano Abruzzese, Pecorino, Chardonnay, and others. This is only first data emerging by Ado Abruzzo, “Areali delle quattro D.O. Abruzzo per una caratterizzazione moderna”, the study about the characterization of the territories of four denominations with a regional value, carried out by Consorzio Tutela Vini d’Abruzzo with Ager (Agriculture and research) and agricultural companies Chiara Ciavolich, Francesco Labbrozzi, Sandro Polidoro, Tenuta i Fauri, and Fratelli Cimini, with the funds of the department of Agriculture of Regione Abruzzo. Through the implementation of modern technologies based on the georeferencing of information, and on the implementation of big data, and, particularly, the use of Enogis platform, capable of integrating different informative layers, vineyard and wine vocational natures of the various interested territories were identified.
“The work which was carried out with this project - explains the president of Consorzio Tutela Vini d’Abruzzo Alessandro Nicodemi -  is precise and punctual, dense of data capable of supplying a detailed image of all the territory. The plaudit goes to the technical office of the Consortium, and to all the partners who worked during this first year with great attention. The result can be seen through an intuitive map which can supply really precious information in agronomic and productive choices. All this can only contribute to the valorization of the quality of wines in our region, but also to reduce the risks deriving from wrong company choices”.
During the first phase of work, vineyards were mapped starting fromthe  wine Catalog of companies of the Abruzzi of the year 2023 supplied by Regione Abruzzo. Once the vineyards were georeferenced, data about “Carta dei suoli della Regione Abruzzo – A.R.S.S.A.”, i.e. the cartography of soils of the entire territory of Regione Abruzzo in scale 1:250.000, realized throughout the synthesis of data collected between 1994 and 2006 (region, systems, and subsystems) was uploaded on webGis.
By implementing satellite data of European project Copernicus, re-elaborated at 2 km from Bruno Kessler Foundation (Fbk), in Trento, climatic maps based on data of the last 22 years (2001-2022), and the main weather-climate indexes were created in order to suppose the climatic areas more or less suitable to the production of high-quality wines: with Winkler index, for example, the most suitable vineyards for each zone can be identified, while, with De Martonne index, the zones favorable to viticulture in relation to the balance between temperature, and precipitation, were identified.
In the Abruzzi, the index is over 20, which indicates a sub-humid climate overall, and, therefore, suitable to the cultivation of vineyard. Thanks to the availability of department Agriculture of the Region, the results of 47 automatic stations of agro-climate monitoring were intersected in the platform, and are all viewable in real time.
In the end, territories were characterized for any territorial delimitation (Region, Province, subzones, Municipalities) elaborating statistics about the distribution of soils, and of other characteristics, such as the exposition of vineyards, the altitude, the average slope.
All the informative layers were uploaded on the website of the Consortium, and are accessible freely. Moreover,a specific form was developed which foresees the possibility of visualizing the units of a vocational nature, and supplies on the map useful tips to create the most suitable plant.