Rapid evaluation of grape phytosanitary status directly at the check point station entering the winery by using visible/near infrared spectroscopy

The aim of this work was to investigate the applicability of vis/NIR spectroscopy for rapid assessment of grape phytosanitary status, directly at the check point at grape consignment. A device for non-contact analysis at a distance between sensor and sample of 300 mm, in the spectral range 400-1650 nm was used. Acquisitions were carried out on healthy (1235 samples, 48%) and diseased bunches (1324 samples, 52%) from different white (Chardonnay, Grillo, Inzolia, Viognier) and red (Alicante, Nero d'Avola, Syrah) varieties.A classification analysis (Partial Least Squares - Discriminant Analysis, PLS-DA) was applied on grape spectra in order to test the classification performance of the system. The results obtained from PLS-DA models, in validation, gave a classification accuracy between 89.8% and 94.0%. Results demonstrated that the system is capable to provide useful information about wine grape phytosanitary status for a better management of the vinification process.