White grape quality monitoring via hyperspectral imaging: From the vineyard to the winery

Assessing the value and grade of grapes is essential to guarantee appropriate wine quality. Currently, the demand for analytical procedures involving the rapid collection and processing of grape production information and quick implementation of corrective actions to maintain grape quality when at risk is increasing rapidly. Among the many technologies available for these purposes, hyperspectral imaging (HSI) has emerged as an effective approach for the following reasons: it can be implemented at the vineyard level, during the grape harvest, and during the winery grape reception, thus enabling fast monitoring and real-time decision-making. This chapter assesses the most important studies focusing on using HSI to monitor agrological and technological parameters for optimal white grape production, including grape variety recognition, the assessment of the water and nutritional statuses, the detection of disease-causing viruses, and the determination of the grape maturity, in order to guarantee the production of quality white wines.