Wine grapes, Arrigoni's solutions against hail and excessive heat in the Bordeaux Vineyards

Arrigoni’s range of solutions for defending wine grapes protects crops from adverse weather conditions, more and more unpredictable and harmful even for prestigious wine crops. As well as being very practical to install, Arrigoni’s protective screens stand out for their ability to adapt to the specific wine-growing area and make it possible to maintain a correct distance between the net and the tendrils, thereby ensuring that the grapes do not come into contact with the net in the event of hail. 
Extreme weather conditions are becoming increasingly frequent and are beyond growers’ control. Additionally, other potential dangers are arising from global warming such as excessive irradiation, strong wind and other factors, which can have a decisive impact on vines’ physiology, growth cycles and the quality of the harvested grapes.

Arrigoni has therefore designed an entire range of anti-hail protection, known as “apron” protection also effective against various other hazards typical of viticulture.First and foremost, as well as providing active protection against hail, it also offers excellent solutions to combat high irradiation while facilitating the creation of an ideal microclimate and better growing conditions for wine grapes, threatened by too high temperatures. Secondly, the system uses the grape cluster containment structure, and the accessories are also designed to ensure that the net remains attached to the structure itself. A further advantage of this system is its extreme flexibility: the net can be very easily opened and closed during agricultural operations, simplifying the pruning process during the winter.

The efficiency of these solutions has been demonstrated on the field. Emis France, Arrigoni’s exclusive distributor for the transalpine nation, has conducted technical tests the vineyards of the Château Peyroutas in Saint-Émilion, in the Bordeaux region. In this area, which boasts outstanding viticulture – first in the world to be classified as UNESCO heritage for its vineyards – producers have had to deal with climate change and extremely high temperatures in recent years during the grape ripening period, when the compounds that determine the wine’s future quality are formed and balanced. In particular, the fruitiness, aroma, acidity, and relatively low alcohol content, characteristics of Bordeaux wines in (former) cool climate, is negatively affected by high ripening temperatures.

Wines with a high ethanol content cause a series of inconveniences both to the producer and the consumer. This high sugar content subsequently converted to ethanol by yeasts lead wines to be more alcoholic, increasing the perception of heat, altering the perception of wine aromas complexity, and decreasing the color intensity and stability.The current trend in the world is to consume beverages with low alcohol content and increased antioxidants concentration. To effectively resolve this problem, the Iride Bayco® and Iride Multi Pro Extra shading systems – designed to protect against extreme insolation, hail and wasp attacks – have been successfully tested.
Sebastien Moulias, sales director of Emis France, explains: “The Arrigoni system primarily protects vines from hail and high temperatures. It is also simple and easy to use. Further research is underway and there will soon be new innovations in this regard.” “Following the positive results obtained during the field trials,” adds Benjamin Banton of Banton & Lauret, “we will rely on Emis France to protect our vines from drought. Every year is different and this year in particular we observed that we really needed the quality and performance of Arrigoni nets.” 

The full subtitled video of the field tests is available at the following link: Video 

Anti-hail protective screens: Iride, Fructus and Scirocco

The apron system comes in various solutions conceived and designed to adapt to any terrain and any latitude, depending on the winemaker’s needs. Iride Due is a run-proof resistant anti-hail net with a double weave, lateral reinforcement, 7.1 x 6.2 mm hole size and dark green colour. The slight elasticity of this type of net makes it adaptable and suitable not only for protecting wine grapes, but also for tunnels and greenhouses. Iride Multi pro Extra is a dense anti-hail net with a 7.1 x 1.7 mm hole size and crystal colour. The small holes improve the microclimate and can protect grapes from wasp attacks during ripening. Iride Bayco®, thanks to the addition of the Bayco® yarn, is also a monofilament anti-hail net that makes it possible to install nets in a vineyard by attaching Bayco® to the metal accessories.

The wine grape protection system is completed by the Fructus range, a special line of high-tenacity polyethylene monofilament woven nets. 3120 TG Fructus Mimetic 2,6/3 is an anti-hail net with a monofilament leno weave. It has a 7.1 x 3 mm hole size and grey colour for a camouflage effect. The inelastic thread, with its textile weave, enables high tension over long distances. 3120NE Fructus 2,6/3 is another version of the anti-hail net with a monofilament leno weave designed to ensure high tension over long distances. 3050NE Scirocco 50 Black, finally, is a black wind barrier that offers 40% shading. Thanks to its 0.97 x 1.39 mm hole size, it protects against insects, wasps and Drosophila suzukii.

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