Dyostem®, an effective tool for matching harvest date to winemaking objectives
Dyostem® is a decision-making tool for harvest management, enabling real-time monitoring of grape maturity and quality potential. Dyostem® measures berry volume, which, together with sugar concentration, is used to build the vine's sugar loading curve. This allows us to draw conclusions about the earliness or lateness of the parcel, the leaf-fruit balance, and the grape's quality potential. The sugar loading curve starts with an active loading phase, followed by a flat phase. The amount of sugar in the berry reached at this level enables us to identify the quality potential of the plot. From this point onwards, aromatic windows of varying length follow, depending on the grape variety: fresh red fruit or thiols for whites at the beginning of the stage, ripe red fruit or terpenes for later harvests.
Dyostem® allows you to better understand your vineyard and make the best decisions according to your own needs: identifying the vine's behavior in advance allows you to optimize your harvests to obtain the desired grape profile and reach your objectives.
For example, during periods of high water stress, sugar loading is slow or even blocked, and potential ABV at the end of loading is low. High temperatures cause concentration at the end of the cycle, resulting in high degrees. In all cases, during severe stress, photosynthesis is blocked, resulting in low production of aromatic precursors. The sequence of aromatic windows will be different, and will enable us to adjust the harvest date according to the winery's technical or economic requirements.
The Dyostem® tool is used not only to better reveal the potential of different plots: which terroirs for great wines? which plots for entry-level wines? how to manage plots with lower potential? ... but also to organize harvests, which can be planned with peace of mind. Dyostem® enables harvest dates to be anticipated by 10 to 20 days for reds and 3 to 5 days for whites, giving Dyostem® users the essential information they need to make decisions and arbitrate on each plot according to their objectives.
How does it work?
Dyostem® analyses start earlier than conventional analyses, after mid-veraison, with one analysis per week during 4 weeks is enough to build up the sugar loading curve. It is important to place the berries in trays with paper towels at the bottom to avoid crushing them and limit humidity. The berries are then placed on a tray, and Dyostem® analyzes their volume and color. These berries are then used for sugar concentration analysis. This data is sent to an online interface, which displays the curves and interprets the results. These models have been in operation for some sixty grape varieties worldwide for the past fifteen years, representing 16,000 plots analyzed every year.
In the longer term, Dyostem® users can measure the impact of climatic and environmental changes in order to adjust winemaking techniques and optimize their plots, ensuring the desired yield and profile for all future scenarios.
With Dyostem®, decision-making becomes an informed and secure process, guaranteeing outstanding results in vineyards all over the world.